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THE  CITY  OF  THE  CALIPHS 


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Cairo 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  CALIPHS 

A  J^npular  g'tubg  of  Cairo  anb  Sta  Ett- 
tttmna  atth  %  Nik  anb  Sta  Antiquitifa 


EUSTACE  A.  REYNOLDS -BALL 

B.  A.  (Oul.),  F.  R.  G.  S. 
Author  of  "Paris  In  lb  Splendor  " 


iiitiBttkitt  ''' '' 


)        J    s  o 


BOSTON 

Sana  !E0teH  anb  Olnmtrang 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  iSg'j 
By  Estes  and  Lauriat 

All  rights  reserved 


COLONIAL  PRESS 

Printed  by  C  H.  Simonds  &  Co. 

BosTdN,  U.  S.  A. 


'^^  He  who  hath  not  seen  Cairo  hath  not  seen  the  world:  its 
soil  is  gold  J  its  Nile  is  a  wonder;  its  women  are  like  the  black- 
eyed  virgins  of  Paradise;  its  houses  are  palaces ;  and  its  air  is 
soft  —  its  odours  surpassing  that  of  aloes-wood^  and  cheering  the 
heart:  and  how  can  Cairo  be  otherwise  when  it  is  the  Mother 
of  the  World?  " —  "  The  Thousand  and  One  Nights." 


. -ik  r-^  jr-t. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  PAGE 

Introduction 1 

I.  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs        ....  5 

11.  The  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies    ....  22 

III.  The  Rule  of  the  Caliphs 42 

IV.  The  Making  of  Egypt 55 

V.  Alexandria  and  the  Nile  Delta      ...  90 

VI.  The  Story  of  the  Suez  Canal  ....  105 

VII.  Cairo  as  a  Resort  for  Invalids        .        .        .  114 

VIII.  Cairo  in  Its  Social  Aspect         ....  122 

IX.  The  Bazaars  and  Street  Life  ....  132 

X.  The  Mosques 139 

XI.  The  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs          ....  149 

XII.  The  National  Museum 157 

XIII.  The  Acropolis  of  Cairo 169 

XIV.  Old  Cairo  and  the  Coptic  Churches       .        .  181 
XV.  Some  Side-shows  of  Cairo 191 

XVI.  The  Pyramids  of  Ghizeh 202 

XVII.  The  City  of  the  Sacred  Bulls         .        .        .  215 

XVIII.  The  City  of  the  Sun 227 

XIX.  Minor  Excursions 235 

XX.  The  Nile  as  a  Health-resort   ....  249 

XXL  The  Nile  from  Cairo  to  Thebes       .        .        .  261 

XXIL  "The  City  of  a  Hundred  Gates"     .        .        .277 

XXIII.  Assouan  and  Phil^ 294 

XXIV.  From  the  First  to  the  Second  Cataract       .  304 
XXV.  Recent  Egyptological  Discoveries  .        .        .  312 

Appendix 337 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAOB 

General  View  of  Cairo  (photogravure)    .         .         Frontispiece 

The  Suez  Canal 110 

The  Route  to  the  Pyramids 116 

Interior  of  the  Mosque  of  Kait  Bey     ....  140 

The  To3ibs  of  the  Caliphs 149 

The  Mosque  of  Kait  Bey 152 

The  Tombs  of  the  Mamelukes 154 

Pyramid,  Sphinx,  and  Temple  of  Ghizeh        .        .         .  202 

Ascending  the  Great  Pyramid 206 

The  Sphinx 212 

Statue  of  Rameses  II 217 

Obelisk  of  Heliopolis 227 

View  of  Edfu 276 

Statue  at  the  Entrance  of  the  Temple  of  Rameses 

III 286 

Luxor 292 

General  View  of  Dar-El-Bahari 314 

Lower  Level  Sluices,  Assouan  Barrage        »        .        .  339 


Cairo 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  CALIPHS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

IF  a  plebiscite  were  taken  among  travellers  in  general  as 
to  the  dozen  most  interesting  and  striking  cities  of  the 
globe,  it  is  probable  that  Cairo  would  be  included  in  the 
list.  It  is  inferior  in  world-wide  interest,  of  course,  to 
Jerusalem  or  Rome,  or  even  Athens,  but  it  would  probably 
take  a  higher  rank  than  many  historic  capitals.  No  doubt 
Cairo,  compared  with  the  great  capitals  of  Europe,  is  mod- 
ern, or,  at  any  rate,  mediaeval,  and,  indeed,  historically 
of  little  importance ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  to  the 
average  traveller  Cairo  is  not  easily  dissociated  from 
Egypt,  —  the  cradle  of  the  oldest  civilisation  and  culture  in 
the  world.  The  proximity  of  the  Pyramids  and  the  Sphinx 
have  no  doubt  something  to  do  with  this  vague  and  erro- 
neous view,  and  with  the  fictitious  antiquity  ignorantly 
attributed  to  the  City  of  the  Caliphs.  The  most  elemen- 
tary history,  handbook  or  guide-book  will,  of  course,  correct 
this  general  impression  ;  but  it  is  not,  perhaps,  an  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  some  casual  visitors  to  Egypt  begin  their 
sightseeing  with  a  vague,  if  unformulated,  impression  that 
Cairo  was  once  the  capital  of  the  Pharaohs,  and  the  Pyra- 
mids its  cemetery. 

The  historic  and  artistic  interest  of  Cairo  is,  in  short, 
purely  mediaeval  and  Saracenic ;  and,  perhaps,  no  Eastern 
city,  except  Damascus,  in  the  beaten  track  of  tourist  travel. 


2  '      ^TfiE  -City  OF  the  caliphs. 

embodies  Jd"' -many* 'of^tKs' typical  characteristics  of  an 
Oriental  city. 

Mehemet  Ali  and  Ismail  may  be  considered  by  the  artist 
and  antiquarian  to  have  done  their  best  to  vulgarise,  that 
is,  Europeanise,  the  City  of  the  Mamelukes ;  but  the  rebuild- 
ing and  enlarging  under  Mehemet,  and  the  hausmannising 
tendencies  of  Ismail,  have  done  little  more  than  touch  the 
surface.  The  native  quarter  of  Cairo  still  remains  a  mag- 
nificent field  of  study  for  the  intelligent  visitor,  especially 
if  he  ignores  the  hackneyed  and  limited  programme  of  the 
guides  and  interpreters;  and  the  artist  who  knows  his 
Cairo  will  find  the  Moslem  city  full  of  the  richest  material 
for  his  sketch-book.  "  Every  step,"  observes  Mr.  Stanley 
Lane-Poole,  "  tells  a  story  of  the  famous  past.  The  stout 
remnant  of  a  fortified  wall,  a  dilapidated  mosque,  a  carved 
door,  a  Kufic  text,  —  each  has  its  history,  which  carries  us 
back  to  the  days  when  Saladin  went  forth  from  the  gates 
of  Cairo  to  meet  Richard  in  the  plain  of  Acre,  or  when 
Beybars  rode  at  the  head  of  his  Mamelukes  in  the  charge 
which  trampled  upon  the  Crusaders  of  Saint  Louis.  A 
cloistered  court  recalls  the  ungodly  memory  of  the  prophet 
of  the  Druses ;  a  spacious  quadrangle,  closely  filled  by 
picturesque,  albeit  scowling,  groups  of  students,  reminds 
us  of  the  conquering  Caliphs  of  'Aly's  heretical  line,  who, 
disdaining  the  mere  dominion  of  Roman  ^  Africa,'  carried 
their  triumphant  arms  into  Egypt  and  Syria,  Sicily  and 
Sardinia,  whilst  their  fleets  disputed  the  command  of  the 
Mediterranean  with  the  galleys  of  Moorish  Spain." 

Cairo  is  full  of  these  picturesque  associations  connected 
with  the  magnificent  age  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans,  but 
most  visitors  know  little  about  them.  Probably  this  is 
mainly  attributable  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  books  on 
Egypt  rather  ignore  its  capital ;  and  the  age  of  the  Sara- 
cens is  a  period  as  much  overlooked  by  modern  historians 
as  that  of  the  Ptolemies. 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

There  are,  of  course,  the  standard  guide-books,  —  a 
most  skilful  condensation  of  a  mass  of  erudition,  —  but  the 
compilers  find  the  Upper  Nile,  with  its  antiquities,  of  such 
surpassing  interest,  that  little  room  can  be  found  for  Cairo 
itself.  Besides,  guide-books  are  read  of  necessity,  and  not 
for  pleasure  or  continuously;  and  in  the  wealth  of  dry 
detail  it  is  difficult  sometimes  to  "  see  the  wood  for  the 
trees." 

There  is,  however,  another  aspect  besides  the  sentimen- 
tal or  devotional  one,  which  should  not  be  disregarded ;  and 
in  the  chapter  dealing  with  the  regeneration  of  Egypt 
under  British  influence,  I  have  attempted  to  show  how 
modern  Egypt  strikes  the  political  observer  and  the  man 
of  practical  affairs. 

Egypt,  with  its  wealth  of  antiquities  and  artistic  relics, 
is,  no  doubt,  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  tourist  and 
sight-seer.  Regarded,  however,  as  a  community  or  modern 
state,  the  Egypt  of  to-day  holds  a  very  low  rank  among 
semicivilised  countries.  There  is  a  certain  amount  of 
reason  in  the  complaint  of  some  modern  historians  that 
Western  minds  seem  to  lose  all  sense  of  proportion  and 
historic  perspective  when  describing  this  Land  of  Paradox, 
which  is,  after  all,  but  a  tenth-rate  territory,  with  an 
acreage  less  than  that  of  Belgium,  and  a  population  hardly 
more  numerous  than  that  of  Ireland.  These  indisputable 
facts  will,  perhaps,  come  as  a  surprise  to  the  tourist,  who 
takes  several  weeks  to  sail  along  the  thousand  miles  of  its 
mighty  river,  —  its  one  and  only  highway,  —  from  Cairo  to 
the  Soudan  frontier.  One  is  apt  to  forget  that,  above  the 
Delta,  Egypt  simply  means  a  narrow  fringe  of  desert 
stretching  for  a  few  miles  on  each  side  of  the  Nile.  This, 
no  doubt,  is  true ;  and  visitors  are  perhaps  too  apt  to  "  see 
the  country  looming  in  a  mist  of  mirage,"  and  are  unable 
to  resist  the  weird  charm  of  this  unique  land. 

At  the  same  time,  one  cannot  deny  the  enormous  inter- 


4  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

national  importance  of  Egypt  in  spite  of  its  small  acreage 
and  population.  This  importance,  no  doubt,  is  to  some 
extent  fictitious,  and  is  due  partly  to  its  peculiar  geographi- 
cal position,  which  makes  it  the  great  highway  between  the 
Eastern  and  Western  hemispheres,  and  partly  to  its  climate, 
which  has  converted  it  into  the  great  winter  residence  and 
playground  of  civilised  nations.  Besides,  magnitude  is 
not,  of  course,  an  absolutely  reliable  test  of  a  country's 
greatness.  Little  states,  as  we  all  know,  have  filled  a 
most  important  part  in  the  world's  history,  —  Athens, 
Sparta,  Venice,  Florence,  Genoa,  for  instance.  Then,  the 
Holy  Land  itself  is  about  the  size  of  Wales,  and  the  area 
of  Attica  was  no  wider  than  that  of  Cornwall. 

In  preparing  this  book,  I  have  consulted  many  of  the 
standard  English  and  French  works  which  have  been  re- 
cently published  ;  and  I  am  especially  indebted  to  the  val- 
uable information  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Professor 
Flinders  Petrie,  Professor  Mahaffy,  the  late  Miss  A.  B. 
Edwards,  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  and  Mr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
For  the  preliminary  chapter  on  Alexandria  and  the  Nile 
Delta,  I  have  utilised  portions  of  an  article  on  Alexandria 
which  I  contributed  to  "  The  Picturesque  Mediterranean," 
published  by  Cassell  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  London,  and  my  grateful 
acknowledgments  are  due  to  this  firm  for  permission  to 
reproduce  these  portions. 

E.  A.  R.  B. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EGYPT  UNDEE  THE  PHARAOHS. 

THE  history  of  the  City  of  Cairo,  as  distinct  from  that 
of  Egypt,  is  simple  and  easily  mastered,  being  con- 
fined within  reasonable  limits.  It  does  not  go  back  further 
than  mediaeval  times.  Unlike  the  history  of  Egypt,  which 
is  concerned  mainly  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  alien  states, 
Cairo,  whether  Arabic  or  Turkish,  is  a  wholly  Mohamme- 
dan creation.  It  is,  indeed,  more  Mohammedan  in  some 
respects  than  any  city  in  the  world,  just  as  Rome  is  more 
Roman  than  any  other  city.  Constantinople,  of  course,  is 
a  decidedly  hybrid  city  in  comparison,  and  its  very  name 
recalls  an  alien  civilisation ;  while  its  chief  temple,  Justin- 
ian's great  church  of  St.  Sophia,  is  a  Christian  building, 
dedicated  to  a  Christian  saint,  although  the  Turks  natu- 
rally try  to  disguise  its  heretical  origin  by  calling  it  Agia 
Sophia  (Holy  Wisdom). 

The  history  of  Cairo,  then,  falls  naturally  into  two 
periods :  that  of  Arab  rule  when  it  was  virtually  the  seat 
of  the  Caliphate ;  and  the  period  of  Turkish  dominion, 
from  its  capture  by  the  Ottoman  Turks  in  1517  down  to 
the  present  time.  In  short,  we  need  consider  it  under  two 
aspects  merely,  —  first  as  the  capital  of  the  Caliphs,  and 
next  as  the  chief  city  of  a  Turkish  pachalic. 

The  history  of  Egypt,  on  the  other  hand,  is  that  of  the 
oldest  civilised  country  in  the  world,  —  though  as  a  com- 
munity it  is  perhaps  one  of  the  newest.  It  is  hardly  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  all  literature,  ancient  and  modern, 


b  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

from  the  works  of  Homer  and  Aristotle  down  to  the  mas- 
terpieces of  Dante  and  Shakespeare,  is  indirectly  due  to 
the  ancient  Egyptian  civilisation.  Philologists  of  the  high- 
est authority  are  agreed  that  the  Phoenician  origin  of  the 
alphabet  cannot  be  substantiated.  Even  Tacitus  seems  to 
have  suspected  that  this  nation  had  won  a  spurious  renown 
as  the  inventors  of  letters,  —  tanquam  repererint  quoe  ac- 
celerant The  Egyptian  cursive  characters  to  be  found  in 
the  Priss^  papyrus  of  the  eleventh  dynasty  —  "  the  oldest 
book  in  the  world  "  —  are  pronounced  by  the  best  philo- 
logical scholars  to  be  the  prototype  of  the  letters  after- 
wards copied  by  the  Greeks  from  the  Phoenicians,  and 
thence  transmitted  to  the  Latins. 

Though  Egypt,  as  the  cradle  of  the  alphabet,  may  be 
considered  the  foster-mother  of  all  literature,  yet  it  must 
be  allowed  that  the  one  thing  needful  to  history,  namely, 
literary  material  in  documentary  form,  is  wanting  in  the 
case  of  Egypt.  We  have  nothing  but  the  fossilised  history 
of  the  monuments.  Only  the  baldest  annals  (^jpace  Brugsch 
Bey)  can  be  compiled  from  stone  inscriptions.  Then,  as 
Mr.  David  Hogarth,  in  his  "  Wanderings  of  a  Scholar  in 
the  Levant,"  pertinently  observes,  contemporary  documents 
carved  on  stone,  whether  in  Greece  or  in  the  Nile  Valley, 
have  often  been  accepted  far  too  literally.  The  enthusi- 
asm of  archaeologists  has  inclined  them  to  regard  insuffi- 
ciently the  fact  that  to  lie  monumentally  to  posterity  is  a 
failing  to  which  the  Pharaohs,  prompted  by  their  colossal 
vanity,  were  particularly  subject. 

From  the  Hyksos  invasion  down  to  the  conquest  of  the 
country  by  the  Ottomans,  —  a  period  of  nearly  five  thou- 
sand years,  —  Egyptian  history  is  simply  that  of  foreign 
conquests,  and  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  that  of  alien 
nations,  its  conquerors,  —  Semitic  (Hyksos  kings),  Ethio- 
pian, Assyrian,  Persian,  Greek,  Roman,  Saracen,  and  Turk- 
ish.    A  cardinal  fact  in  the  history  of  this  remarkable 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.  7 

country  is  its  perpetual  subjection  to  foreign  influences. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  the  Egyptians  have,  during  these 
thousands  of  years  of  foreign  dominion,  preserved  their 
national  characteristics,  and  the  same  unvarying  physical 
types.  This  racial  continuity,  in  spite  of  all  these  adverse 
circumstances  and  interminable  succession  of  alien  inuni- 
grations,  which  might  be  supposed  to  modify  materially  the 
uniformity  of  the  Egyptian  type,  is  one  of  the  greatest 
puzzles  in  ethnography. 

What  is  known  as  the  prehistoric  period  of  Egypt  can 
be  dismissed  in  a  paragraph.  This  history  is  based,  of 
course,  on  mythical  legend,  and  is  purely  conjectural.  It 
is  supposed  that  the  country  was  divided  into  a  number  of 
small,  independent  states,  each  with  its  own  tutelary  chief; 
or,  according  to  some  writers,  these  sovereigns  were  deities 
and  kings  in  one,  and  they  have  been  termed  god-kings. 
To  emphasise  the  distinction,  Menes  and  the  kings  of  the 
first  dynasty  are  designated  as  the  first  earthly  kings  of 
Egypt. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  Egyptians,  scholars  are  di- 
vided into  two  schools;  for  though  there  are  innumer- 
able theories,  if  we  eliminate  the  more  fanciful  ones  it 
will  be  found  that  all  historians  of  note  have  adopted  one 
or  other  of  the  two  following  theories.  Those  who  adopt 
the  Biblical  narrative  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
ancestors  of  the  Egyptians  came  originally  from  Asia,  and 
that,  in  short,  the  tide  of  civilisation  flowed  up  the  Nile. 
Philologists,  too,  who  have  discovered  many  points  of 
resemblance  in  the  roots  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  and 
Semitic  languages,  have  adopted  this  theory.  Ethnogra- 
phists  and  anthropologists,  however,  hold  an  opposite  view, 
and  consider  that  a  study  of  the  customs  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  and  an  examination  of  their  implements  and 
utensils,  which  are  very  similar  to  those  of  the  tribes 
living  on  the  banks  of  the  Niger  and    Zambesi,  rather 


8  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

point  to  an  Ethiopian  or  South  African  origin ;  and  that 
civilisation  began  in  the  Upper  Nile  Valley  and  spread 
northwards  and  downwards.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
each  of  these  historical  schools  may  be  partly  right ;  and 
possibly  the  true  explanation  is  that,  whether  an  Asiatic 
or  African  origin  be  granted,  the  immigrants  found  an 
aboriginal  race  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  whose 
racial  characteristics  and  distinctive  physical  types  were 
probably  as  little  modified  by  these  alien  invaders  as  they 
have  been  by  their  Mohammedan  conquerors  in  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

Most  modern  historians,  then,  fortified  by  the  opinion  of 
ethnographical  authorities,  after  the  scientific  examination 
of  the  ancient  monumental  sculptures  and  drawings,  are 
satisfied  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  differed  in  all  essen- 
tial racial  characteristics  from  the  African  negroes,  and 
belonged  to  a  branch  of  the  great  Caucasian  family. 

It  would  be  futile  to  attempt  here  anything  but  the 
barest  summary  of  the  chief  facts  of  Egyptian  history.  A 
very  slight  thread  of  narrative  may,  however,  connect  the 
most  important  historical  landmarks  under  which  the  lead- 
ing facts  of  Egyptian  history  may  be  grouped.  Without 
attempting,  then,  anything  of  the  nature  of  a  scientific 
chronological  prScis,  a  practical  and  rough-and-ready 
division,  ignoring,  of  course,  the  dynasties  and  Ancient, 
Middle,  and  New  Empires,  and  other  conventional  divi- 
sions of  historians,  would  be  something  as  follows :  — 

1.  The  age  of  the  Pharaohs,  which  would  include  the 
first  twenty -six  dynasties,  down  to  the  first  Persian  inva- 
sion under  Cambyses. 

2.  The  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies,  which  includes  the 
prosperous  reigns  of  the  dynasty  founded  by  Alexander  the 
Great. 

3.  The  Saracenic  era,  during  which  Egypt  became  once 
more  a  centre  of  arts  and  sciences,  in  spite  of  the  interne- 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.         9 

cine  feuds  of  the  rival  Caliphs.     This  period  closes  with 
the  conquest  by  the  Ottoman  Turks. 

4.  The  Political  Renaissance  of  Egypt  under  Mehemet 
Ali. 

5.  Modern  Egypt,  when  the  country  of  the  Pharaohs 
entered  upon  its  latest  phase,  after  the  fall  of  the  Khedive 
Ismail,  as  a  kind  of  proteg^  of  the  Great  Powers,  under 
the  stewardship,  first  of  Great  Britain  and  France,  and 
finally  of  Great  Britain  alone. 

The  division  of  Egyptian  history  into  Ancient,  Middle, 
and  New  Empires  is  as  artificial  and  arbitrary  as  the  popu- 
lar divisions  into  dynasties.  The  Ancient  Empire  begins 
with  Menes,  the  first  really  historical  king  of  Egypt. 
Little  is  known  of  this  monarch's  achievements,  but  he  at 
any  rate  affords  us  a  sure  starting-place  for  our  survey  of 
the  early  monarchy. 

The  sources  from  which  we  derive  our  knowledge  of 
these  primeval  kings  are  from  the  monumental  inscrip- 
tions, lists  (more  or  less  imperfect  or  undecipherable)  in 
the  Turin  papyrus,  and  the  history  of  the  Ptolemaic  priest, 
Manetho.  Mena,  or  Menes,  is  supposed  to  have  been  de- 
scended from  a  line  of  local  chiefs  at  This,  near  Abydos, 
the  traditional  burying-place  of  Osiris.  Coming  south,  he 
made  Memphis  the  capital  of  his  new  united  kingdom. 
This  was  the  chief  centre  of  the  worship  of  the  god  Ptah, 
creator  of  gods  and  men ;  and  it  was  here  that  the  cult  of 
the  Apis  bull  (the  Serapis  of  the  Greeks)  was  first  in- 
stituted. The  kings  of  the  first  three  dynasties,  with  the 
exception  of  Menes,  have  left  few  records,  though  certain 
inscriptions  on  the  cliffs  at  Sinai  have  been  attributed  to 
one  of  the  kings  of  the  third  dynasty,  and  the  Pyramid  of 
Medum,  in  the  opinion  of  Doctor  Petrie,  was  built  by 
Seneferu.  These  three  dynasties  cover  the  period  b.  c. 
4400  to  3766,  according  to  Brugsch.  But  Egyptian 
chronology  is   one   of   the  most  disputed  departments  of 


10  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Egyptology,  and  the  dates  given  are,  of  course,  only  ap- 
proximate. 

With  the  fourth  dynasty  we  come  to  the  familiar  names 
of  the  great  pyramid-builders,  Cheops,  Chephren,  and  My- 
cerinos.  It  is  not  till  the  age  of  the  Theban  Pharaohs 
that  we  find  sovereigns  who  have  left  such  lasting  records 
of  a  highly  developed  civilisation.  Cheops  and  Chephren, 
in  the  Egyptian  traditions,  probably  coloured  a  good  deal 
by  the  biassed  accounts  of  Herodotus  and  other  Greek  his- 
torians, have  been  held  up  to  the  execration  of  posterity 
as  heartless  tyrants  and  profligate  despisers  of  the  gods. 
Mycerinos's  memory  is,  however,  revered  by  Herodotus  as 
a  just  and  merciful  king.  "  To  him  his  father's  deeds 
were  displeasing,  and  he  both  opened  the  temples  and  gave 
liberty  to  the  people,  who  were  ground  down  to  the  last 
extremity  of  evil,  to  return  to  their  own  business  and  sac- 
rifices; also  he  gave  decision  of  their  causes  juster  than 
those  of  all  the  other  kings."  The  actual  bones  of  this 
king  can  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum,  so  that  this  pane- 
gyric has  a  peculiar  interest  for  English  people. 

To  the  fifth  dynasty,  known  as  the  Elephantine  from 
the  place  of  origin,  belongs  Unas,  whose  pyramid-tomb  was 
discovered  by  Professor  Maspero  in  1881.  The  sovereigns 
of  the  sixth  dynasty  distinguished  themselves  by  various 
foreign  conquests.  To  this  family  belongs  the  famous 
Queen  Nitokris,  the  original  of  the  fabled  Rhodopis  of  the 
Greeks. 

It  is  permissible  to  skip  a  period  of  some  six  hundred 
years,  during  which  four  dynasties  reigned,  whose  history 
is  almost  entirely  lost.  So  far  as  we  can  judge,  it  was  a 
period  of  struggle  between  weak  titular  sovereigns  and 
powerful  feudal  chiefs  who  left  the  kings  a  merely  nominal 
sovereignty,  having  apparently  acquired  the  control  of  the 
civil  and  military  authority. 

Egypt  during   this  period  was  invaded  by  Libyan  and 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHAI^AOHS.        11 

Ethiopian  tribes.  With  the  eleventh  dynasty,  founded  by 
powerful  princes  from  Thebes,  begins  the  Middle  Empire, 
with  Thebes  as  its  capital.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
seat  of  government  is  often  shifted  during  the  thirty 
dynasties  which  comprise  Egyptian  history  from  Menes  to 
Nectanebo  I. 

Under  the  Ancient  Empire,  Memphis,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  the  seat  of  government,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the 
first  historic  capital  of  Egypt.  This,  near  Abydos,  no 
doubt  can  boast  of  an  earlier  history ;  but  this  was  merely 
the  cradle  of  the  first  Egyptian  kings,  of  whom  we  have 
no  records  more  authentic  than  those  semi-mythical  tradi- 
tions which  centre  round  the  prehistoric  god-kings,  and  it 
cannot,  of  course,  be  considered  as  a  seat  of  government. 
The  political  centre  was  shifted,  under  different  kings,  for 
dynastic,  strategic,  or  political  motives,  to  various  places  in 
Egypt,  from  the  Upper  Nile  Yalley  to  the  Delta. 

As  the  power  of  the  kings  increased,  the  capital  was 
fixed  at  Abydos,  Elephantine,  and  other  southern  cities. 
Under  the  Middle  Empire,  the  period  of  Egypt's  greatest 
splendour,  the  great  city  of  Thebes  was  the  capital.  Then, 
during  a  period  of  internal  disturbance  or  foreign  inva- 
sions, it  was  transferred  again  to  the  north,  to  Memphis, 
Tel-El-Amarna,  and  other  cities  of  Lower  Egypt.  From 
the  thirteenth  to  the  seventeenth  dynasties,  Egyptian  his- 
tory is  intricate  and  difficult  to  follow.  The  Shepherd 
Kings  had  conquered  Lower  Egypt,  and  held  sway  in  the 
Delta,  while  the  old  Theban  royal  race  still  maintained 
the  chief  authority  in  Upper  Egypt.  So,  during  these 
five  dynasties,  there  were  two  capitals,  Tanis  (Zoan)  and 
Thebes.  During  the  later  Asiatic  wars  the  political  centre 
was  shifted  towards  the  Asiatic  frontier,  and  Kameses  the 
Great  and  his  successors  held  their  court  principally  in 
the  northern  city  of  Tanis.  Under  the  New  Empire, — 
the   period   of   decadence    and   foreign    oppression,  —  the 


12  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

centre  was  continually  transferred,  and  it  was  shifted  with 
each  political  change,  —  now  to  Thebes,  now  to  Memphis, 
and  finally  to  Bubastis  and  Sais. 

The  twelfth  dynasty  is  an  important  period  in  Egyp- 
tian history.  The  reigns  of  Usertsen  I.  and  III.  and 
Amen-Em-Het  III.  are  renowned  for  the  famous  perma- 
nent engineering  achievements  which  did  more,  perhaps, 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  country  than  many  of  the  archi- 
tectural enterprises  and  foreign  conquests  of  the  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  dynasties.  Amen  -  Em  -  Het  III. 
conferred  the  greatest  benefit  on  Egypt  by  his  vast  en- 
gineering works  for  regulating  the  inundations  of  the  Nile. 
His  most  famous  work,  by  which  Egypt  has  benefited  even 
down  to  the  present  day,  was  the  construction  of  the  great 
artificial  lake,  called  by  the  Greeks  Moeris,  now  called 
by  the  Arabs  El-Fayyum.  This  monarch  also  gave  later 
sovereigns  the  idea  of  a  Nilometer,  as  on  the  cliffs  at 
Semni  he  made  regular  measurements  of  the  rise  in  the 
Nile  inundation. 

We  now  enter  a  dark  period  of  about  five  hundred  years, 
when  Egypt  passed  under  the  foreign  domination  —  inciden- 
tally referred  to  above,  from  which  she  freed  herself  only 
after  a  long  and  severe  struggle. 

The  thirteenth  dynasty  appears  at  first  to  have  carried 
on  the  government  with  the  success  inherited  from  its 
predecessors ;  but  there  are  indications  that  the  reigns  of 
its  later  kings  were  disturbed  by  internal  troubles,  and  it 
is  probable  that  actual  revolution  transferred  power  to  the 
fourteenth  dynasty,  whose  seat  was  Sais  in  the  Delta. 
The  new  dynasty  probably  never  succeeded  in  making  its 
sway  paramount ;  and  Lower  Egypt,  in  particular,  seems  to 
have  been  torn  by  civil  wars,  and  to  have  fallen  an  easy 
prey  to  the  invader.  Forced  on  by  a  wave  of  migration  of 
the  peoples  of  Western  Asia,  in  connection,  perhaps,  with 
the  conquests  of  the  Elamites,  or  set  in  motion  by  some 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.        13 

internal  cause,  the  nomad  tribes  of  Syria  made  a  sudden 
irruption  into  the  northeastern  border  of  Egypt,  and,  con- 
quering the  country  as  they  advanced,  apparently  without 
difficulty,  finally  established  themselves  in  power  at  Mem- 
phis. Their  course  of  conquest  was  undoubtedly  made 
smooth  for  them  by  the  large  foreign  element  in  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  Lower  country,  where,  on  this  account,  they 
may  have  been  welcomed  as  a  kindred  people,  or  at  least 
not  opposed  as  a  foreign  enemy.  The  dynasties  which  the 
newcomers  founded  we  know  as  those  of  the  Hyksos,  or 
Shepherd  Kings,  —  a  title,  however,  which  is  nowhere  given 
to  them  in  genuine  Egyptian  texts.  It  has  been  conjec- 
tured that  the  name  Hyksos  (which  first  occurs  in  the 
fragment  of  Manetho)  is  derived  from  "  Hek-Shasu,"  King 
of  the  Shasu,  an  Egyptian  name  for  the  thieving  nomad 
race. 

After  the  rough  work  of  conquest  had  been  accom- 
plished, the  Hyksos  gradually  conformed  to  Egyptian 
customs,  adopted  Egyptian  forms  of  worship,  and  gov- 
erned the  country  just  as  it  had  been  governed  by  the 
native  kings.  The  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  dynasties  are 
Hyksos  dynasties,  probably  at  first  holding  sway  over 
Lower  Egypt  alone,  but  gradually  bringing  the  Upper 
country  into  subjection,  or  at  least  under  tribute.  The 
period  of  the  seventeenth  dynasty,  whether  we  are  to 
call  it  Hyksos  or  native  Theban,  or  to  count  it  as  being 
occupied  by  kings  of  both  races,  was  a  period  of  revolt. 
The  Theban  under-king,  Sekenen  Ra,  refused  tribute,  and 
the  war  of  liberation  began,  which,  after  a  struggle  of 
nearly  a  century,  was  brought  to  a  happy  conclusion  by 
the  final  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  by  Aahmes,  or  Amasis  I., 
the  founder  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 

The  period  of  the  foreign  domination  has  a  particular 
interest  on  account  of  its  connection  with  Bible  history. 
It  appears  from  chronological  calculations,  which  are  fairly 


14  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

conclusive,  that  it  was  towards  the  end  of  the  Hyksos  rule 
that  the  Patriarch  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt.  A  king 
named  Nubti  (b.  c.  1750)  is  supposed  to  have  occupied 
the  throne  at  the  time ;  and  the  famous  Hjksos  king,  Apepa 
II.,  is  said  to  have  been  the  Pharaoh  who  raised  Joseph  to 
high  rank,  and  welcomed  the  Patriarch  Jacob  and  his 
family  into  Egypt.^ 

Aahmes  I.  (Amasis),  the  conqueror  of  the  Hyksos  usurp- 
ers, was  the  son  of  Ka-mes,  the  last  of  the  royal  race  of 
Thebes  of  the  seventeenth  dynasty;  and  his  mother  was 
Queen  Aah-hetep,  whose  jewels  in  the  National  Museum  at 
Cairo  are  only  exceeded  in  beauty  and  interest  by  those  of 
the  Princess  Hathor.  This  monarch  is  the  first  of  the  eigh- 
teenth dynasty,  in  which  the  history  of  Egypt  enters  upon 
a  new  phase,  and  what  may  be  called  the  "  Expansion  of 
Egypt ''  begins.  Hitherto  the  Egyptian  sovereigns  had  been 
satisfied  with  waging  war  only  with  their  immediate  neigh- 
bours. Now  begins  an  active  foreign  policy,  and  we  note 
an  expansion  of  the  national  spirit.  An  Egyptian  Empire 
was  founded,  which,  by  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Thotmes 
I.,  extended  from  the  Euphrates  in  the  north  to  Berber  in 
the  Soudan.  This  policy  of  foreign  conquest  was,  no  doubt, 
forced  upon  Aahmes  and  his  successors  by  circumstances. 
It  was  essential  to  find  employment  for  their  large  armies, 
whose  energies  had  been  hitherto  confined  to  overthrowing 
the  Hyksos  dynasty.  But  this  foreign  policy,  which  brought 
Egypt  into  collision  with  the  great  Asiatic  empires,  even- 
tually proved  a  source  of  danger,  when  Egypt  was  no  longer 
ruled  by  the  warrior-kings  of  the  eighteenth,  nineteenth, 
and  twentieth  dynasties. 

Thotmes  II.  and  his  sister,  the  famous  Hatasu  (Hatshep- 
set),  whose  achievements  are  more  fully  referred  to  in  the 
chapter  on  Thebes,  followed  up  the  Asiatic  victories  of 
Thotmes  I.  with  successful  expeditions   into   Arabia.     It 

» E.  A.  Wallis-Budge. 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARA.OHS.        15 

was,  however,  reserved  for  her  son  Thotmes  III.  to  bring 
the  neighbouring  nations  into  complete  subjection ;  and 
Egypt,  under  this  famous  monarch,  perhaps  the  greatest 
prototype  of  Alexander  the  Great  in  history,  reached  the 
period  of  its  greatest  material  prosperity. 

It  was  his  proud  boast  that  he  planted  the  frontiers  of 
Egypt  where  he  pleased ;  and  this  was,  indeed,  no  hyper- 
bolical figure.  "  Southwards,  as  far,  apparently,  as  the 
great  Equatorial  Lakes,  which  have  been  rediscovered  in 
our  time;  northwards  to  the  Islands  of  the  ^gean  and 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Euphrates ;  over  Syria  and  Sinai, 
Mesopotamia  and  Arabia  in  the  East;  over  Libya  and 
the  North  African  coast  as  far  as  Cherchell  in  Algeria  on 
the  West,  he  carried  fire  and  sword,  and  the  terrors  of  the 
Egyptian  name."  ^ 

Queen  Hatasu  was  one  of  the  most  famous  royal  build- 
ers of  Egypt.  "  Numerous  and  stately  as  were  the  obelisks 
erected  in  Egypt  from  the  period  of  the  twelfth  dynasty 
down  to  the  time  of  Roman  rule,"  remarks  Miss  Edwards, 
"  those  set  up  by  Hatasu  in  advance  of  the  fourth  pylon  of 
the  Great  Temple  of  Karnak  are  the  loftiest,  the  most  admir- 
ably engraved,  and  the  best  proportioned.  One  has  fallen ; 
the  other  stands  alone,  one  hundred  and  nine  feet  high  in 
the  shaft,  cut  from  a  single  flawless  block  of  red  granite." 

Thotmes  III.  was  famed  as  much  for  his  achievements 
of  peace  as  for  his  foreign  conquests,  and  some  of  the 
finest  monuments  at  Thebes  and  Luxor  testify  to  his 
merits  as  an  architect.  In  fact,  his  cartouche  occurs  more 
frequently  even  than  that  of  Eameses  II.  on  antiquities  of 
every  kind,  from  temples  and  tombs  down  to  scarabs.  The 
fame  of  Thotmes's  successors,  Amen-hetep  II.,  and  Amen- 
hetep  III.,  though  vigorous  and  warlike  kings,  has  been 
eclipsed  by  that  of  their  great  ancestor,  though  their  cam- 
paigns in  Syria  and  Nubia  were  equally  successful. 

1 "  Pharaohs,  Fellahs,  and  Explorers." 


16  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

The  reign  of  Amen-hetep  lY.  is  noteworthy  for  an  im- 
portant religious  reform  or  revolution.  This  king,  probably 
influenced  by  his  mother,  a  princess  of  Semitic  origin, 
"  endeavoured  to  substitute  a  sort  of  Asiatic  monotheism, 
under  the  form  of  the  worship  of  the  solar  disk,  for  the 
official  worship  of  Egypt.  The  cult  and  the  very  name  of 
Amen  were  proscribed,  the  name  being  erased  from  the 
monuments  wherever  it  occurred,  and  the  king  changed 
his  own  name  from  Amen-hetep  to  Khun-Aten,  the  '  Glory 
of  the  Solar  Disk.'  In  the  struggle  which  ensued  between 
the  Pharaohs  and  the  powerful  hierarchy  of  Thebes,  Khun- 
Aten  found  himself  obliged  to  leave  the  capital  of  his 
fathers,  and  build  a  new  one  farther  north  called  Khut- 
Aten,  the  site  of  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  villages  of 
Tel-El-Amarna  and  Haggi  Qandil.  Here  he  surrounded 
himself  with  the  adherents  of  the  new  creed,  most  of 
whom  seem  to  have  been  Canaanites  or  other  natives  of 
Asia,  and  erected  in  it  a  temple  to  the  solar  disk  as  well 
as  a  palace  for  himself,  adorned  with  paintings,  gold, 
bronze,  and  inlaid  work  in  precious  stones."^ 

The  worship  of  Amen  was,  however,  too  firmly  estab- 
lished to  be  permanently  overthrown,  and  the  great  god 
was  paramount  among  the  Egyptian  gods.  Consequently 
the  new  cult  took  no  hold  upon  the  people.  After  Amen- 
hetep' s  death  the  new  worship  died  out,  and  the  god  Amen 
was  restored  as  the  national  deity  by  Amen-hetep  IV. 
(Horus).  In  fact,  the  very  stones  and  decorations  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Solar  Disk  were  used  in  embellishing  the 
temple  of  the  victorious  Amen  at  Karnak. 

With  the  nineteenth  dynasty  (B.  c.  1400-1200),  the 
age  of  the  earlier  Pharaohs,  —  for  in  popular  estimation 
the  generic  names  of  Rameses  and  Pharaoh  are  convert- 
ible terms,  though  etymologists  would,  of  course,  draw  a 
distinction,  —  we  enter  upon  the  most  popular  period  of 

1  *•  Murray's  Handbook  for  Egypt." 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.        17 

ancient  Egjrptian  history, —  popular,  that  is,  in  the  sense 
of  familiar.  Rameses  I.  is  the  least  important  sovereign 
of  the  Pharaonic  monarchs,  and  is  known  chiefly  for  the 
war  he  waged  with  the  traditional  enemies  of  the  Theban 
monarchs,  the  Khita  of  Northern  Syria.  His  victories 
were,  however,  but  moderate,  and  the  campaign  was  con- 
tinued with  greater  success  by  his  son,  Seti  I.  This  sov- 
ereign successfully  undertook  the  task  of  subjugating  the 
Phoenicians  and  the  Libyans.  He  cut,  too,  the  first  canal 
between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Nile.  It  is  true  that  this 
honour  has  been  claimed  for  Queen  Hatasu,  but  the  au- 
thority is  doubtful,  being  mainly  based  on  the  sculptures 
in  which  this  Queen's  famous  expedition  to  the  Land  of 
Punt  is  pictorially  described,  some  of  these  paintings  ap- 
parently indicating  that  there  was  some  kind  of  waterway 
between  the  Nile  Valley  and  the  Red  Sea. 

Rameses  I.  was  succeeded  by  the  famous  Rameses  H., 
the  Sesostris  of  the  Greeks,  and  known  to  us  as  the  Pha- 
raoh of  the  Oppression.  Rameses  II.  is,  no  doubt,  the  one 
dominant  personality  in  the  whole  field  of  Egyptian  his- 
tory. His  name  is  more  widely  known  than  that  of  any 
other  Egyptian  monarch.  Many  reasons  for  this  universal 
posthumous  fame  can  be  assigned.  No  doubt  his  unusually 
long  reign,  seven  years  longer  than  the  present  reign  of 
Queen  Victoria  (1897),  has  something  to  do  with  this. 
Then,  too,  the  prominence  given  to  this  monarch's  reign  by 
Herodotus  and  other  Greek  historians,  and  the  wealth  of 
traditionary  lore  which  has  centred  round  the  legendary 
Sesostris,  and  his  intimate  associations  with  the  Old  Test- 
ament history,  have  contributed  not  a  little  to  exalt  the 
fame  of  Rameses  above  that  of  all  other  monarchs. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  his  renown  is 
to  a  considerable  extent  factitious.  For  instance,  owing  to 
his  overweening  vanity  (in  which,  however,  he  did  not 
differ  from  most  other  sovereigns  of  Egypt)  in  usurping 


18  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  architectural  monuments  of  his  predecessors  by  carv- 
ing upon  them  his  own  cartouche,  he  got  credit  for  these 
magnificent  works,  as  well  as  for  those  which  were  un- 
deniably his  own,  of  which  the  most  famous  are  the 
Ramesseum,  at  Thebes,  and  the  rock-hewn  Temple  of 
Abru-Simbel,  in  Nubia. 

Then  Rameses's  greatest  achievement  in  arms,  the  fa- 
mous campaign  against  the  Khita,  which  is  commemorated 
at  such  inordinate  length  on  the  mural  sculptures  of  so 
many  temples,  has  been  naturally  somewhat  magnified  by 
Pentaur,  the  poet  laureate  of  the  Theban  court.  In  a 
poem  virtually  written  to  order,  it  is  necessary,  of  course, 
to  discount  a  certain  leaning  towards  fulsome  hyperbole 
in  this  stone-graven  epic.  It  is  absurd  to  accept  as  an 
historical  fact  the  extravagant  statement  which  makes 
Rameses  rout,  single-handed,  the  whole  Khita  host. 

Without  wishing  to  deny  the  title  of  Great  to  this 
monarch,  we  need  not  follow  the  example  of  the  Greek 
historians  and  accept  without  reserve  achievements  which 
would  be  more  suited  to  the  mythical  god-kings  of  the 
prehistoric  period. 

In  the  reign  of  Rameses  the  Great's  successor,  Mer-en- 
Ptah  II.  (Seti  III.),  took  place,  according  to  most  modern 
historians,  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites.  Some  chronolo- 
gists  have,  however,  given  a  later  date  to  this  national 
emigration.  "With  the  expiration  of  the  nineteenth 
dynasty,"  writes  Dr.  Wallis-Budge,  "the  so-called  Middle 
Empire  of  Egypt  came  to  an  end,  and  we  stand  upon  the 
threshold  of  the  New  Empire,  a  chequered  period  of  occa- 
sional triumphs,  of  internal  troubles,  and  of  defeats  and 
subjection  to  a  foreign  yoke." 

The  period  from  the  twentieth  to  the  end  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  dynasty  can  be  rapidly  summed  up.  Rameses  III., 
the  founder  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  was  the  only  strong 
sovereign  of  the  half-dozen  who  bore  this  dynastic  name, 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.         19 

and  was  the  last  of  the  warrior-kings  of  Egypt.  After  his 
death,  the  country  enters  upon  a  period  of  degeneration  and 
decadence,  which  lasted  for  over  five  hundred  years.  The 
later  kings  of  this  dynasty  fell  gradually  under  the  domin- 
ion of  the  priests,  which  was  finally  consummated  by  the 
usurpation  of  a  race  of  priest-kings  from  Tanis,  who  formed 
the  twenty-first  dynasty.  The  Trojan  war  was  probably 
waged  about  this  time.  The  rule  of  the  high-priest  of 
Amen  was  eventually  overthrown  by  the  Libyan  prince, 
Shashank  (Shishak  of  the  Old  Testament),  who  founded 
the  twenty-second  dynasty  and  made  Bubastes  the  seat 
of  government. 

Egypt  was  now  entering  upon  the  stage  of  disruption, 
and  the  authority  of  one  sovereign  was  virtually  replaced 
by  that  of  a  host  of  petty  kings,  and  the  two  following 
dynasties  (twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth)  are  made  up 
of  a  list  of  the  more  powerful  of  these  sovereigns,  who 
had  gained  a  nominal  supremacy.  During  these  troublous 
times  of  internecine  strife,  Egypt  was  being  harassed  by 
two  powerful  neighbours,  Assyria  and  Ethiopia.  The  lat- 
ter country,  which,  during  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
dynasties,  had  been  a  mere  province  of  the  empire  of  the 
Pharaohs,  was  now  independent,  and  from  about  715  b.  c. 
they  got  the  better  of  their  former  masters  and  founded 
what  is  known  as  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty.  This  dynasty 
was,  however,  short-lived,  and  in  672  b.  c.  the  Assyrians 
under  Esarhaddon  invaded  Egypt,  captured  Thebes  and 
Memphis,  and,  occupying  the  whole  Delta,  became  masters 
of  the  country. 

The  history  of  Egypt  at  this  period  is  difficult  to  follow, 
but  it  appears  that  one  of  the  more  powerful  of  the  native 
princes —  Psammetichus,  King  of  Sais,  who  was  nominally  a 
viceroy  of  Assyria  in  Egypt —  took  advantage  of  the  disrup- 
tion of  the  Assyrian  Empire  caused  by  the  revolt  of  Baby- 
lonia, to  rebel  against  his  suzerain  and  expel  the  Assyrian 


20  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

army  of  occupation.  Then,  by  a  judicious  marriage  with 
a  Theban  princess,  the  heiress  of  the  older  dynasties,  Psam- 
metichus  was  able  to  win  over  Upper  Egypt  as  well  as  the 
Delta,  and  to  found  what  is  known  as  the  twenty-sixth 
dynasty.  A  transitory  period  of  tranquillity  now  begins, 
and  a  sort  of  revival  of  the  arts  and  sciences  takes  place, 

—  one  of  the  many  periods  of  renaissance  which  Egypt 
has  known,  —  which  proved  that  many  centuries  of  civil 
war  and  foreign  oppression  had  not  entirely  crushed  the 
artistic  spirit  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  the  Egyp- 
tians by  their  ancestors.  Necho,  the  son  of  Psammetichus, 
next  reigned.  He  seems  to  have  paid  as  much  attention 
to  the  domestic  welfare  and  the  material  prosperity  of  his 
country  as  to  foreign  conquest,  and  among  his  achieve- 
ments was  an  attempt  to  cut  a  canal  between  the  Nile  and 
the  Red  Sea.  His  efforts  in  encouraging  the  development 
of  trade  did  a  good  deal  towards  reviving  the  commercial 
spirit  of  the  people.  It  was  in  Necho's  reign,  too,  that 
certain  Phoenician  mariners  in  this  sovereign's  service 
made  a  voyage  round  Africa,  —  an  enterprise  which  took 
nearly  three  years  to  accomplish.  This  is  the  first  com- 
plete circumnavigation  of  the  African  continent  recorded 
in  history. 

For  the  next  one  hundred  years  Egyptian  history  is 
merged  in  that  of  Syria,  Babylonia,  and  Persia.  The  his- 
torical sequence  of  events  is  rendered  more  difficult  to 
follow  by  the  fact  that,  after  the  victory  of  Cambyses  in 
527  B.  c,  till  the  subjugation  of  the  Persians  by  Alex- 
ander the  Great  at  the  battle  of  the  Issus  in  332  b.  c, 

—  one  of  the  most  "decisive  battles  of  the  world,"  — 
Egypt  was  practically  a  satrapy  of  the  Persian  Empire 
though  historians  reckon  three  short-lived  Pharaonic 
dynasties  during  this  period,  called  the  twenty-eighth, 
twenty-ninth,  and  thirtieth,  which  synchronised  with  the 
twenty-seventh,  or  Persian  dynasty.     This  is  accounted  for 


EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS.        21 

by  the  fact  that  whenever  a  native  prince  got  possession  of 
the  Delta,  or  of  a  considerable  portion  of  Egypt,  he  became 
nominally  sovereign  of  Egypt,  though  it  was  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  a  province  of  Persia. 

The  twenty-seventh  dynasty  was,  in  short,  a  period  of 
Persian  despotism,  tempered  by  revolts  more  or  less  suc- 
cessful on  the  part  of  the  native  viceroys  or  satraps  ap- 
pointed by  Darius,  Xerxes,  Artaxerxes,  and  other  Persian 
monarchs.  For  instance,  for  a  few  years,  under  Amyrteus 
(twentieth-eighth  dynasty),  Mendes  (twenty-ninth  dynasty), 
and  the  last  native  sovereign,  Nectanebo  II.  (thirtieth  dy- 
nasty), Egypt  was  almost  independent  of  Persia.  In  b.  c. 
332,  when  the  Persian  power  had  succumbed  to  the  Mace- 
donians imder  Alexander  the  Great,  this  anomalous  period 
of  Egyptian  quasi-independence  came  to  an  end.  On  the 
death  of  this  monarch,  Egypt  fell  to  the  share  of  his  gen- 
eral, Ptolemy,  who  founded  the  important  dynasty  of  the 
Ptolemies,  and  was  hailed  as  the  Saviour  (Soter)  of  the 
country. 

This  concludes  a  necessarily  brief  summary  of  the  age 
of  the  Pharaohs.  In  order  to  confine  in  a  few  pages  a 
sketch  of  the  history  of  a  period  covering  over  four  thou- 
sand years  and  comprising  thirty  different  dynasties,  one 
can  do  little  more  than  give  a  bare  list  of  names  of  the 
principal  sovereigns  and  of  their  more  important  wars.  In 
fact,  like  all  ancient  history,  the  history  of  the  pre-Ptole- 
maic  period  is  in  a  great  degree  a  history  of  empires  and 
dynasties,  foreign  wars  and  internal  revolutions,  and  is  in  a 
much  less  degree  the  history  of  the  political  and  social  prog- 
ress of  the  people.  For,  as  Professor  Freeman  truly  ob- 
serves, it  is  to  the  history  of  the  Western  world  in  Europe 
and  America  that  we  must  naturally  look  for  the  highest 
development  of  art,  literature,  and  political  freedom. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   PTOLEMIES.^ 

THE  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies  is  thus  appropriately 
designated,  as  it  emphasises  the  fact  that  these 
Macedonian  sovereigns  were  not  merely  kings  of  Egypt, 
but  rulers  of  a  great  composite  empire. 

"  None  of  Alexander's  achievements  was  more  facile, 
and  yet  none  more  striking,  than  his  Egyptian  campaign. 
His  advent  must  have  been  awaited  with  all  the  agitations 
of  fear  and  hope  by  the  natives  of  all  classes ;  for  the  Per- 
sian sway  had  been  cruel  and  bloody,  and  if  it  did  not  lay 
extravagant  burdens  upon  the  poor,  it  certainly  gave  the 
higher  classes  an  abundance  of  sentimental  grievances,  for 
it  had  violated  the  national  feelings,  and  especially  the 
national  religion,  with  wanton  brutality.  The  treatment 
of  the  revolted  province  by  Ochus  was  not  less  violent  and 
ruthless  than  had  been  the  original  conquest  by  Cambyses, 
which  Herodotus  tells  us  with  graphic  simplicity.  No 
conquerors  seem  to  have  been  more  uncongenial  to  the 
Egyptians  than  the  Persians.  But  all  invaders  of  Egypt, 
even  the  Ptolemies,  were  confronted  by  a  like  hopelessness 
of  gaining  the  sympathies  of  their  subjects.  If  it  was  com- 
paratively easy  to  make  them  slaves,  they  were  perpetually 
revolting  slaves.  This  was  due,  not  to  the  impatience  of 
the  average  native,  but  rather  to  the  hold  which  the 
national  religion  had  gained  upon  his  life.     This  religion 

1 1  am  indebted  for  much  of  the  information  in  this  chapter  to  Professor 
MahafEy's  admirable  monograph  on  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies. 

22 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  23 

was  administered  by  an  ambitious,  organised,  haughty 
priesthood,  whose  records  and  traditions  told  them  of  the 
vast  wealth  and  power  they  had  once  possessed,  —  a  condi- 
tion of  things  long  passed  away,  and  never  likely  to  return, 
but  still  filling  the  imaginations  of  the  priests,  and  urging 
them  to  set  their  people  against  every  foreign  ruler.  The 
only  chance  of  success  for  an  invader  lay  in  conciliating 
this  vast  and  stubborn  corporation.  Every  chief  who 
headed  a  revolt  against  the  Persians  had  made  this  the 
centre  of  his  policy ;  the  support  of  the  priests  must  be 
gained  by  restoring  them  to  their  old  supremacy,  —  a 
supremacy  which  they  doubtless  exaggerated  in  their  un- 
criticised  records  of  the  past. 

"  The  nobles  or  military  caste,  who  had  been  compelled  to 
submit  to  the  generalship  of  mercenary  leaders,  Greek  or 
Carian,  were  also  disposed  to  welcome  Alexander.  The 
priestly  caste,  who  had  not  forgotten  the  brutal  outrages 
to  the  gods  by  Cambyses,  were  also  induced  to  hail  with 
satisfaction  the  conqueror  of  their  hereditary  enemies,  the 
Persians.  Alexander  was  careful  to  display  the  same  con- 
ciliatory policy  to  the  priests  of  Heliopolis  and  Memphis 
which  he  had  adopted  at  Jerusalem.  These  circumstances 
partly  explained  the  attitude  of  the  Egyptians  in  hailing 
Alexander  as  their  deliverer  rather  than  their  conqueror." 

In  order  to  understand  the  comparatively  peaceful  acces- 
sion of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the 
cardinal  principle  which  governed  Alexander's  occupation 
of  Egypt,  and  his  administration  of  the  conquered  province. 

"  Alexander  had  asserted  the  dignity  and  credibility  of 
the  Egyptian  religion,  and  his  determination  to  support  it 
and  receive  support  from  it.  He  had  refused  to  alter  the 
local  administrations,  and  even  appointed  some  native 
officials  to  superintend  it.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had 
placed  the  control  of  the  garrison  and  the  central  author- 
ity in  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians  and  Greeks,  and  had 


24  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

founded  a  new  capital,  which  could  not  but  be  a  Hellenistic 
city,  and  a  rallying  point  for  all  the  Greek  traders  through- 
out the  country.  The  port  of  Canopus  was  formally 
closed,  and  its  business  transferred  to  the  new  city." 

On  Alexander's  death,  in  323  b.  c,  after  a  very  short 
illness,  Ptolemy,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  took  over  the 
regency  of  Egypt,  and  in  305  b.  c.  he  was  strong  enough 
to  declare  himself  king,  and  to  assume  the  title  of  Soter 
(Saviour). 

The  history  of  the  sixteen  Ptolemies  who  form  the 
Ptolemaic  dynasty  is  made  up  of  the  reigns  of  a  few 
powerful  monarchs  who  held  the  throne  sufficiently  long 
to  insure  a  stable  government,  and  of  a  large  number  of 
short-lived  and  weak  sovereigns,  most  of  whom  suffered  a 
violent  death.  In  short,  the  large  proportion  of  those  who 
died  by  violence  is  as  noticeable  as  in  the  remarkable  list 
of  the  prehistoric  kings  of  Ireland.  The  Ptolemaic  dynasty 
made  a  propitious  commencement  with  the  first  three 
Ptolemies,  who  were  able  and  powerful  monarchs.  During 
this  period  the  prestige  of  Egypt  among  foreign  nations 
was  very  high. 

In  283  B.  c.  Ptolemy  Soter  died,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year 
of  his  age,  leaving  a  record  of  prosperity  which  few  men 
in  the  world  have  surpassed.  Equally  efficient  whether  as 
servant  or  as  master,  he  made  up  for  the  absence  of  genius 
in  war  or  diplomacy  by  his  persistent  good  sense,  the  mod- 
eration of  his  demands,  and  the  courtesy  of  his  manners 
to  friend  and  foe  alike.  While  the  old  crown  of  Macedon 
was  still  the  unsettled  prize  for  which  rival  kings  staked 
their  fortunes,  he  and  his  fellow-in-arms,  Seleukos,  founded 
dynasties  which  resisted  the  disintegrations  of  the  Hellenis- 
tic world  for  centuries. 

Perhaps  of  all  Ptolemy's  achievements,  whether  foreign 
or  domestic,  his  famous  museum  and  library  deserves  to 
rank  the  highest.    Very  little  is  known  about  this  remark- 


THE    EMPIEE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  25 

able  seat  of  learning,  and  Strabo's  description  is  painfully 
meagre.  This  great  institution  was  rather  a  university 
than  a  museum,  and  was  certainly  the  greatest  glory  of 
Ptolemaic  Alexandria.  The  idea  of  making  his  capital, 
not  merely  a  great  commercial  centre,  but  a  centre  of 
arts,  sciences,  and  literature,  seems  to  have  gradually 
matured  in  the  mind  of  Ptolemy  Soter.  The  college  or 
university,  or  whatever  we  call  the  museum,  was  under 
the  most  direct  patronage  of  the  king,  and  was,  in  fact, 
a  part  of  the  royal  palace.  It  included,  in  addition  to 
lecture-halls,  class-rooms,  dining-hall,  etc.,  courts,  cloisters, 
and  gardens,  and  was  under  the  rule  of  a  principal  nomi- 
nated by  the  king,  who  also  performed  the  offices  of  a  kind 
of  high-priest.  This  Alexandrian  foundation  was  appar- 
ently as  much  a  teaching  and  residential  university  as  the 
famous  European  universities  of  Paris,  Padua,  or  Oxford. 
In  fact,  it  served  equally  with  the  renowned  academies  of 
Athens  as  a  model  for  modern  universities. 

"It  is  indeed  strange  that  so  famous  an  institution 
should  not  have  left  us  some  account  of  its  foundation,  its 
constitution,  and  its  early  fortunes.  No  other  school  of 
such  moment  among  the  Greeks  is  so  obscure  to  us  now ; 
and  yet  it  was  founded  in  broad  daylight  of  history  by  a 
famous  king,  in  one  of  the  most  frequented  cities  of  the 
world.  The  whole  modern  literature  on  the  subject  is 
a  literature  of  conjecture.  If  it  were  possible  to  exam- 
ine the  site,  which  now  lies  twenty  feet  deep  under  the 
modern  city,  many  questions  which  we  ask  in  vain  might 
be  answered.  The  real  outcome  of  the  great  school  is  for- 
tunately preserved.  In  literary  criticism,  in  exact  science, 
in  geography,  and  kindred  studies,  the  museum  made  ad- 
vances in  knowledge  which  were  among  the  most  impor- 
tant in  the  progress  of  human  civilisation.  If  the  produce 
in  poetry  and  philosophy  was  poor,  we  must  attribute  such 
failure  to  the  decadence  of  that  century,  in  comparison 


26  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

with  the  classical  days  of  Ionia  and  Athens.  But  in  pre- 
serving the  great  masters  of  the  golden  age  the  library, 
which  was  part  of  the  same  foundation,  did  more  than  we 
can  estimate." 

On  the  death  of  his  father,  Ptolemy  Soter,  Philadelphus, 
in  accordance  with  the  traditional  policy  of  that  age,  puts 
to  death  his  stepbrother,  Argeus,  his  most  formidable  rival. 
According  to  the  historians  of  that  period,  Philadelphus  is 
said  to  have  complained  in  after-life  that  one  of  the  hard- 
ships in  a  despot's  life  was  the  necessity  of  putting  people 
to  death  who  had  done  no  harm,  merely  for  the  sake  of 
expediency ! 

Having  now  cleared  the  way  to  the  throne,  Philadel- 
phus makes  arrangements  for  his  coronation.  We  borrow 
the  following  vivid  picture  of  these  magnificent  ceremonies 
of  Philadelphus  from  the  pages  of  "  Greek  Life  and 
Thought : " 

"  The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  is  the  ostentation  of  the 
whole  affair,  and  how  prominently  costly  materials  were 
displayed.  A  greater  part  of  the  royal  treasure  at  all 
courts  in  those  days  consisted  not  of  coin,  but  of  precious 
gold  and  silver  vessels,  and  it  seems  as  if  these  were 
carried  in  the  procession  by  regiments  of  richly  dressed 
people.  And  although  so  much  plate  was  in  the  streets, 
there  was  a  great  sideboard  in  the  banqueting-hall  covered 
with  vessels  of  gold,  studded  with  gems.  People  had  not, 
indeed,  sunk  so  low  in  artistic  feeling  as  to  carry  pots  full 
of  gold  and  silver  coin,  which  was  done  in  the  triumph  of 
Paulus  ^milius  at  Rome,  but  still  a  great  part  of  the 
display  was  essentially  the  ostentation  of  wealth.  How 
different  must  have  been  a  Panathenaic  festival  in  the 
days  of  Pericles!  I  note  further  that  sculpture  and 
painting  of  the  best  kind  (the  paintings  of  the  Sicyonian 
artists  are  specially  named)  were  used  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  decoration.     Then,  in  describing  the  appearance  of 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  27 

the  great  chamber  specially  built  for  the  banquet,  Callixe- 
nus  tells  us  that  on  the  pilasters  round  the  wall  were  a 
hundred  marble  reliefs  by  the  first  artists,  in  the  space 
between  them  were  paintings,  and  about  them  precious 
hangings  with  embroideries,  representing  mystical  subjects, 
or  portraits  of  kings.  We  feel  ourselves  in  a  sort  of  glori- 
fied Holborn  Restaurant^  where  the  resources  of  art  are 
lavished  on  the  walls  of  an  eating-room.  In  addition  to 
scarlet  and  purple,  gold  and  silver,  and  skins  of  various 
wild  beasts  upon  the  walls,  the  pillars  of  the  room  repre- 
sented palm-trees,  and  Bacchic  thyrsi  alternated,  a  design 
which  distinctly  points  to  Egyptian  rather  than  Greek 
taste. 

"  Among  other  wonders,  the  Royal  Zoological  Gardens 
seemed  to  have  been  put  under  requisition,  and  we  have 
a  list  of  the  various  strange  animals  which  joined  in  the. 
parade.  This  is  very  interesting  as  showing  us  what  can 
be  done  in  the  way  of  transporting  wild  beasts,  and  how 
far  that  traffic  had  reached.  There  were  twenty-four  huge 
lions,  —  the  epithet  points,  no  doubt,  to  the  African,  or 
maned  lions,  —  twenty-six  snow-white  Indian  oxen,  eight 
^thiopic  oxen,  fourteen  leopards,  sixteen  panthers,  four 
lynxes,  three  young  panthers,  a  great  white  bear,  a  came- 
leopard,  and  an  ^thiopic  rhinoceros.  The  tiger  and  the 
hippopotamus  seem  to  have  missed  the  opportunity  of 
showing  themselves,  for  they  were  not  mentioned. 

"  But  the  great  Bacchic  show  was  only  one  of  a  large 
number  of  mummeries,  or  allegories,  which  pervaded  the 
streets ;  for  example,  Alexander,  attended  by  Nike  and 
Athene,  the  first  Ptolemy  escorted  and  crowned  by  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  and  with  Corinth  standing 
beside  him.  Both  gods  and  kings  were  there  in  statues 
of  gold  and  ivory,  and  for  the  most  part  escorted  by  living 
attendants,  —  a  curious  incongruity  all  through  the  show. 

"The  procession  lasted  a  whole  day,  being  opened  by 


28  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

a  figure  of  the  Morning  Star  and  closed  by  Hesperus. 
Eighty  thousand  troops,  cavalry  and  infantry,  in  splendid 
uniforms,  marched  past.  The  whole  cost  of  the  feast  was 
over  half  a  million  of  our  money.  But  the  mere  gold 
crowns,  offered  by  friendly  towns  and  people,  to  the  first 
Ptolemy  and  his  queen,  had  amounted  to  that  sum." 

The  literary  materials  we  possess  for  the  reign  of  this 
Ptolemy  are  deplorably  meagre,  the  few  extant  documents 
being,  for  the  most  part,  fulsome  panegyrics  of  Greek 
chroniclers,  or  bare  records  of  isolated  facts,  which  are  not 
of  great  historical  value.  The  most  interesting  event  in 
this  reign  is  the  coronation  ceremony,  which  was  conceived 
and  carried  out  on  a  scale  of  unparalleled  splendour  and 
magnificence.  Contemporary  writers  seem  to  have  been  as 
much  dazzled  by  these  f^tes  as  the  Alexandrian  populace. 
Possibly  there  was  some  deep  political  motive  behind  these 
magnificent  spectacles,  which  amused  the  people  and  in- 
duced them  to  forget  the  atrocious  domestic  murders  with 
which  Philadelphus  inaugurated  his  reign. 

"  We  have  from  Phylarchus  a  curious  passage  which 
asserts  that,  though  the  most  august  of  all  the  sovereigns 
of  the  world,  and  highly  educated,  if  ever  there  was  one, 
he  was  so  deceived  and  corrupted  by  unreasonable  luxury 
as  to  expect  he  could  live  forever,  and  say  that  he  alone 
had  discovered  immortality ;  and  yet,  being  tortured  many 
days  by  gout,  when  at  last  he  got  better  and  saw  from  his 
windows  the  natives  on  the  river  bank  making  their  break- 
fast of  common  fare,  and  lying  stretched  anyhow  on  the 
sand,  he  sighed:  'Alas  that  I  was  not  born  one  of 
them ! ' " 

Philadelphus  is  perhaps  best  known  for  his  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  Alexandrian  Museum,  which  had  been 
founded  by  his  father.  He  is  generally  allowed  to  have 
the  credit  of  ordering  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  known  as  the  Septuagint;  but  his  actual  re- 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  29 

sponsibility  for  this  is  still  a  matter  of  controversy  with 
ecclesiastical  historians.  It  is  not,  however,  disputed  that 
Philadelphus  commissioned  Manetho  to  write  his  famous 
History  of  Egypt.  Of  Ptolemy's  architectural  achieve- 
ments, the  most  important  is  the  Pharos  at  Alexandria. 
This  famous  tower,  from  which  the  French  and  other 
Latin  nations  derive  their  name  for  lighthouse  (Phare), 
once  ranked  among  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  It 
was  made  of  white  marble,  and  was  several  stories  high, 
and  inside  ran  a  circular  causeway  on  a  gentle  incline, 
which  could  be  ascended  by  chariots.  It  is  not  known 
how  long  this  lighthouse  remained  erect,  but  it  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  destroyed  by  an  earthquake  in  1203 

A.  D. 

A  clever  epigram  of  Posidippus,  on  a  second  century 
papyrus  found  a  few  years  ago,  is  worth  quoting : 

"  ^Wrjvmv  aa)T7)pa  ^apov  (tkoitov,   co  ava  Upcorev, 
^co(TTpaTO<;  e(TT7)(jev  ^e^i(f>avov^  Ki^tSio? 
ov  ^ap  ev  AcyvTrTeoi  aKoiroi  ov  pLOv  oC  ein  vrjacop 
aWa  x^f^^^  XV^V  vavXoxo^  eKTeraraL.^^ 

It  is  said  that  on  a  very  calm  day  it  is  possible  to  dis- 
cern the  ruins  beneath  the  sea  off  the  head  of  the  promon- 
tory. 

In  this  reign  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  building 
of  temples  and  other  commemorative  structures.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  world-renowned  Temple  of  Isis,  a  gem  of  Ptole- 
maic architecture,  Ptolemy  built  several  temples  on  the 
Delta,  —  notably  one  at  Naukratis,  and  one  of  great  size  on 
the  site  of  the  ancient  Sebennytus.  He  also  built  an  im- 
portant port  on  the  Red  Sea,  named  after  his  daughter 
Berenice,  which  is  thus  described  in  an  article  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  1887  : 

"  The  violent  north  winds  that  prevail  in  the  Red  Sea  made  the 
navigation  so  difficult  and  slow  for  the  poor  ships  of  the  ancients 


30  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

that  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  established  the  port  of  Berenike.  This 
is  two  hundred  miles  south  of  the  ancient  ports  at  or  near  Kosseir, 
and  consequently  saved  that  distance  and  its  attendant  delays  and 
dangers  to  the  mariners  from  South  Arabia  and  India.  I  suppose 
the  best  camels  and  the  worst  ships  would  choose  Berenike,  while 
the  best  ships  and  the  worst  camels  would  carry  the  Kosseir  traffic. 
For  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  Philadelphus,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  built  Berenike,  also  rebuilt  the  old  Kosseir  port,  and  Myos 
Hormos  was  still  kept  in  repair.  In  former  days  it  is  probable 
that  many  a  sea-sick  traveller,  buffeted  by  contrary  winds,  landed 
joyfully  at  Berenike,  and  took  the  twelve-days'  camel  journey  sooner 
than  continue  in  his  cramped  ship,  —  just  as  now  they  disembark 
at  Brindisi  rather  than  Venice,  on  their  way  from  India." 

An  engineering  work  of  the  highest  importance,  and  one 
which,  as  we  shall  see  later,  in  the  chapter  on  Modern  Egypt, 
proved  of  permanent  value  in  the  development  of  the  agri- 
cultural resources  of  the  country,  was  the  draining  of  Lake 
Moeris,  and  the  reclamation  and  irrigation  of  a  vast  tract 
of  country  now  known  as  Fayyum. 

In  a  sketch  of  this  important  reign,  some  mention 
should  be  made  of  Ptolemy's  famous  consort,  his  second 
wife,  Arsinoe.  This,  to  add  to  the  difficulties  of  ancient 
chroniclers  and  modern  historians,  was  also  the  name  of 
Philadelphus's  first  wife ;  but  the  fame  of  the  latter  is 
altogether  eclipsed  by  that  of  the  former.  Even  in  the 
age  of  Berenices  and  Cleopatras,  and  other  great  prin- 
cesses, Arsinoe  stands  out  prominently.  Though  most 
Egyptian  queens  were  in  a  manner  deified,  none,  with 
the  exception  of  the  last  Cleopatra,  exercised  greater 
political  influence.  She  took  her  place  beside  the  king, 
not  only  on  coins,  but  among  those  statues  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Odeum  at  Athens,  where  the  series  of  the  Egyptian 
kings  was  set  up.  She  was  the  only  queen  among  them. 
At  Olympia,  where  there  were  three  statues  of  the  king, 
she  had  her  place.  Pausanias  also  saw,  at  Helicon,  a 
statue  of  her  in  bronze,  riding  upon  an  ostrich.     It  is 


THE    EMPIEE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  31 

very  likely  that  this  statue,  or  a  replica,  was  present  to 
the  mind  of  Callimachus,  when  he  spoke,  in  the  "Coma 
Berenices,"  of  the  winged  horse,  brother  of  the  Ethiopian 
Memnon,  who  is  the  messenger  of  Queen  Arsinoe.  Ar- 
sinoe  died  some  three  or  four  years  before  her  royal  hus- 
band, and  Pliny  tells  us  that  the  disconsolate  king,  after 
her  death,  lent  an  ear  to  the  wild  scheme  of  an  architect 
to  build  her  a  temple  with  a  lodestone  roof,  which  might 
sustain  in  mid-air  an  iron  statuette  of  the  deified  lady,  who 
was  identified  with  Isis  (especially  at  Philae)  and  with 
Aphrodite.  She  had  an  Arsinoeion  over  her  tomb  at  Alex- 
andria, another  apparently  in  the  Fayyum,  and  probably 
many  elsewhere.  Her  temple  on  the  promontory  between 
Alexandria  and  the  Canopic  mouth,  dedicated  to  her  by 
Kallikrates,  where  she  was  known  as  Aphrodite  Zephyritis, 
is  mentioned  by  Strabo,  and  celebrated  in  many  epigrams. 
He  also  mentions  two  towns  in  iEtolia  and  Crete,  two 
in  Cilicia,  two  in  Cyprus,  one  in  Cyrene,  besides  those  in 
Egypt,  called  after  her.  She  seems  only  to  have  wanted 
a  Plutarch  and  a  Roman  lover  to  make  her  into  another 
Cleopatra. 

Of  all  the  Ptolemies,  Euergetes  I.  is  the  only  great  con- 
queror, and  his  reign  should  be  the  most  interesting  to  the 
student  were  it  not  for  the  scantiness  of  material.  Very 
little  is  known  of  this  shadowy  and  enigmatic  sovereign, 
and  of  the  actual  part  he  took  in  the  great  campaigns 
against  the  Seleucides  and  Cilicia  —  one  exceeded  in  im- 
portance only  by  the  chief  ones  of  Alexander  —  nothing 
is  told  us  by  the  Greek  chroniclers.  The  events  of  the 
great  campaign  known  as  the  Third  Syrian  War  have,  in- 
deed, only  within  recent  years  been  known  to  modern 
historians  through  the  accounts  in  the  famous  Petrie  pa- 
pyrus. Other  important  evidence  for  the  history  of  this 
Ptolemy  is  the  famous  stone  inscription  known  as  the 
Decree  of  Canopus,  recovered  by  Lepsius,  in  1865,  from 


32  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

the  sands  of  Tanis.  It  was  passed  by  the  Synod  of  Priests 
in  the  ninth  year  of  this  reign.  It  is  hoped  that  similar 
decrees  may  be  found  at  Philae,  for  in  1895  the  Egyptian 
government  intrusted  the  researches  here  to  Colonel 
Lyons,  R.  E. 

The  difficulty  of  unravelling  the  intricate  labyrinthine 
maze  of  Egyptian  history  during  the  three  hundred  years 
of  Ptolemaic  rule  is  intensified,  owing  to  the  bewildering 
recurrence  of  certain  royal  names.  It  is  difficult  to  differ- 
entiate the  innumerable  princesses  bearing  the  names  of 
Berenice,  Arsinoe,  or  Cleopatra,  and,  indeed,  some  of  the 
Greek  historians  have  mixed  these  names  up  in  a  most 
bewildering  fashion.  Another  difficulty  which  confronts 
the  student  of  this  period  is  the  custom  of  the  sovereigns 
marrjdng  their  sisters.  Then  again,  many  of  the  kings 
and  queens  reign  conjointly.  For  instance  we  have  Phi- 
lometer  (Ptolemy  YIII.)  and  Euergetes  II.  (Ptolemy  IX.) 
together  on  the  throne  of  Egypt. 

In  a  sketch  of  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  a  notice  of 
the  first  three  sovereigns  must  necessarily  occupy  a  space 
which  seems  somewhat  disproportionate  for  a  period  which 
fills  barely  a  hundred  years,  —  about  one-third  of  the  whole 
dynasty.  But  considering  the  importance  of  these  reigns, 
this  prominence  does  not,  I  think,  show  a  want  of  appre- 
ciation of  historic  proportion,  which  has,  of  course,  little 
to  do  with  chronological  proportion. 

"Tried  by  a  comparative  standard,"  writes  Mr.  David 
Hogarth,  "  the  only  monarchs  of  the  Nile  Valley  that 
approach  to  absolute  greatness  are  Ptolemy  Philadelphus 
I.,  Saladin,  certain  of  the  Mamelukes,  and  Mehemet  Ali ; 
for  these  held  as  their  own  what  the  vainglorious  raiders 
of  the  twelfth  and  nineteenth  dynasties  but  touched  and 
left,  and  I  know  no  prettier  irony  tlian  that,  among  all 
those  inscriptions  of  Pharaohs  who  'smite  the  Asiatics' 
on  temple  walls  and  temple  pylons,  there  should  occur  no 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  33 

record  of  the  prowess  of  the  one  king  of  Egypt  who  really 
smote  Asiatics  hip  and  thigh,  —  Alexander,  son  of  Philip." 

With  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  TV.  (Philopater),  a  tyran- 
nical and  self-indulgent  king,  begins  the  decline  of  the 
Egyptian  kingdom  under  a  series  of  dynastic  monarchs. 
Philopater  continued  the  traditional  foreign  policy  of  his 
ancestors ;  and  though  successful  in  his  campaign  against 
Syria,  now  ruled  by  Antiochus  the  Great,  Egypt  derived 
but  little  benefit,  as  the  war  was  terminated  by  a  peace 
in  which  the  terms  were  distinctly  unfavourable  to  Egypt, 
and  were  due  to  the  weakness  and  incapacity  of  Philopater. 

The  early  events  of  the  reign  are  thus  summarised  by 
Polybius : 

"  Immediately  after  his  father's  death,  Ptolemy  Philopater  put  his 
brother  Magas  and  his  partisans  to  death,  and  took  possession  of 
the  throne  of  Egypt.  He  thought  that  he  had  now  freed  himself  by 
this  act  from  domestic  danger,  and  that  by  the  deaths  of  Antigonus 
and  Seleucus,  and  their  being  succeeded  by  mere  children  like  An- 
tiochus and  Philip,  fortune  released  him  from  danger  abroad.  He 
therefore  felt  secure  of  his  position,  and  began  conducting  his  reign  as 
though  it  were  a  perpetual  feast.  He  would  attend  to  no  business, 
and  would  hardly  grant  an  interview  to  the  officials  about  the  court, 
or  at  the  head  of  the  administrative  departments  of  Egypt.  Even  his 
agents  abroad  found  him  entirely  careless  and  indifferent,  though 
his  predecessors,  far  from  taking  less  interest  in  foreign  affairs,  had 
generally  given  them  precedence  over  those  of  Egypt  itself.  For 
being  masters  of  Ccele-Syria  and  Cyprus,  they  maintained  a  threat- 
ening attitude  towards  the  kings  of  Syria,  both  by  land  and  sea; 
and  were  also  in  a  commanding  position  in  regard  to  the  princes  of 
Asia,  as  well  as  the  islands,  through  their  possession  of  the  most 
splendid  cities,  strongholds,  and  harbours  all  along  the  seacoast, 
from  Pamphylia  to  the  Hellespont  and  the  district  round  Lysima- 
chia.  Moreover,  they  were  favourably  placed  for  an  attack  upon 
Thrace  and  Macedonia  from  their  possession  of  ^Sinus  Maroneia 
and  more  distant  cities  still.  And  having  thus  stretched  forth  their 
hands  to  remote  regions,  and  long  ago  strengthened  their  position 
by  a  ring  of  princedoms,  these  kings  had  never  been  anxious  about 
their  rule  in  Egypt,  and  had  naturally,  therefore,  given  great  atten- 
tion to  foreign  politics. 


34  THE    CITY    OF   THE'  CALIPHS. 

"  But  when  Philopater,  absorbed  in  unworthy  intrigues  and  sense- 
less and  continual  drunkenness,  treated  these  several  branches  of 
government  with  equal  indifference,  it  was  naturally  not  long  before 
more  than  one  was  found  to  lay  plots  against  his  life  as  well  as 
his  power :  of  whom  the  first  was  Cleomenes,  the  Spartan." 

The  decisive  battle  of  Raphia,  which  terminated  the 
Fourth  Syrian  War,  is  described  with  great  circumstantial 
detail  by  Polybius.  We  can  only  find  room  for  the  follow- 
ing graphic  specimen  from  this  despatch  of  the  most 
famous  Greek  prototype  of  modern  war  correspondents : 

"  Ptolemy,  accompanied  by  his  sister,  having  arrived  at  the  left 
wing  of  his  army,  and  Antiochus  with  the  royal  guard  at  the  right, 
they  gave  the  signal  for  the  battle,  and  opened  the  fight  by  a  charge 
of  elephants. 

"  Only  some  few  of  Ptolemy's  elephants  came  to  close  quarters 
with  the  foe.  Seated  on  these,  the  soldiers  in  the  howdahs  main- 
tained a  brilliant  fight,  lunging  at  and  striking  each  other  with 
crossed  pikes ;  but  the  elephants  themselves  fought  still  more  bril- 
liantly, using  all  their  strength  in  the  encounter,  and  pushing 
against  each  other,  forehead  to  forehead. 

"  The  way  in  which  elephants  fight  is  this  :  they  get  their  tusks 
entangled  and  jammed,  and  then  push  against  one  another  with  all 
their  might,  trying  to  make  each  other  yield  ground,  until  one  of 
them,  proving  superior  in  strength,  has  pushed  aside  the  other's 
trunk;  and  when  once  he  can  get  a  side  blow  at  his  enemy,  he 
pierces  him  with  his  tusks,  as  a  bull  would  with  his  horns.  Now, 
most  of  Ptolemy's  animals,  as  is  the  way  with  Libyan  elephants, 
were  afraid  to  face  the  fight,  for  they  cannot  stand  the  smell  or  the 
trumpeting  of  the  Indian  elephants,  but  are  frightened  at  their 
size  and  strength,  I  suppose,  and  run  away  from  them  at  once  with- 
out waiting  to  come  near  them. 

«  This  is  exactly  what  happened  on  this  occasion,  and  upon  their 
being  thrown  into  confusion  and  being  driven  back  upon  their  own 
lines,  Ptolemy's  guard  gave  way  before  the  rush  of  the  animals; 
while  Antiochus,  wheeling  his  men  so  as  to  avoid  the  elephants, 
charged  the  division  of  cavalry  under  Polycrates.  At  the  same  time 
..the  Greek  mercenaries,  stationed  near  the  phalanx  and  behind  the 
elephants,  charged  Ptolemy's  peltasts  and  made  them  give  ground, 
the  elephants  having  already  thrown  their  ranks  into  confusion. 

"  Thus  Ptolemy's  whole  left  wing  began  to  give  way  before  the 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  85 

enemy.  Echecrates,  the  commander  of  the  right  wing,  waited  at 
first  to  see  the  result  of  the  struggle  between  the  other  wings  of 
the  two  armies;  but  when  he  saw  the  dust  coming  his  way,  and 
that  the  elephants  opposite  his  division  were  afraid  even  to  ap- 
proach the  hostile  elephants  at  all,  he  ordered  Phoxidas  to  charge 
the  part  of  the  enemy  opposite  him  with  his  Greek  mercenaries, 
while  he  made  a  flank  movement  with  the  cavalry  and  the  division 
behind  the  elephants,  and  so  getting  out  of  the  line  of  the  hostile 
elephants'  attack,  charged  the  enemy's  cavalry  on  the  rear  or  the 
flank,  and  quickly  drove  them  from  the  ground.  Phoxidas  and  his 
men  were  similarly  successful ;  for  they  charged  the  Arabians  and 
Medes,  and  forced  them  into  precipitate  flight.  Thus  Antiochus's 
right  wing  gained  a  victory,  while  his  left  was  defeated.  The 
phalanxes,  left  without  the  support  of  either  wing,  remained  intact 
in  the  centre  of  the  plain,  in  a  state  of  alternate  hope  and  fear  for 
the  result.  Meanwhile,  Antiochus  was  assisting  in  gaining  the  vic- 
tory on  his  right  wing ;  while  Ptolemy,  who  had  retired  behind  his 
phalanx,  now  came  forward  in  the  centre,  and  showing  himself  in 
the  view  of  both  armies,  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  enemy, 
but  inspired  great  spirit  and  enthusiasm  in  his  own  men;  and 
Andromachus  and  Sosibius  at  once  ordered  them  to  lower  their 
sarissae  and  charge.  The  picked  Syrian  troops  stood  their  ground 
only  for  a  short  time,  and  the  division  of  Nicarchus  quickly  broke 
and  fled. 

"  Antiochus,  presuming,  in  his  youthful  inexperience,  from  the 
success  of  his  own  division  that  he  would  be  equally  victorious  all 
along  the  line,  was  pressing  on  the  pursuit ;  but  upon  one  of  the 
older  officers  at  length  giving  him  warning,  and  pointing  out  that  the 
cloud  of  dust  raised  by  the  phalanx  was  moving  towards  their  own 
camp,  he  understood  too  late  what  was  happening,  and  endeavoured 
to  gallop  back  with  the  squadron  of  royal  cavalry  to  the  field.  But 
finding  his  whole  line  in  full  retreat,  he  was  forced  to  retire  to 
Eaphia,  comforting  himself  with  the  belief  that,  as  far  as  he  was 
personally  concerned,  he  had  won  a  victory,  but  had  been  defeated 
in  the  whole  battle  by  the  want  of  spirit  and  courage  shown  by  the 
rest. 

"  Ptolemy,  having  secured  the  final  victory  by  his  phalanx,  and 
killed  large  numbers  of  the  enemy  in  the  pursuit  by  means  of  his 
cavalry  and  mercenaries  on  his  right  wing,  retired  to  his  own  camp 
and  there  spent  the  night.  But  next  day,  after  picking  up  and 
burying  his  own  dead,  and  stripping  the  bodies  of  the  enemy,  he 


36  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

advanced  towards  Raphia.  Antiochus  had  wished,  immediately 
after  the  retreat  of  his  army,  to  make  a  camp  outside  the  city,  and 
there  rally  such  of  his  men  as  had  fled  in  compact  bodies ;  but  find- 
ing that  the  greater  number  had  retreated  into  the  town,  he  was 
compelled  to  enter  it  himself  also.  Next  morning,  however,  before 
daybreak,  he  led  out  the  relics  of  his  army,  and  made  the  best  of 
his  way  to  Gaza.  There  he  pitched  a  camp,  and  having  sent  an 
embassy  to  obtain  leave  to  pick  up  his  dead,  he  obtained  a  truce  for 
performing  their  obsequies.  His  loss  amounted  to  nearly  ten  thou- 
sand infantry  and  three  hundred  cavalry  killed,  and  four  thousand 
taken  prisoners.  Three  elephants  were  killed  on  the  field,  —  two 
died  afterwards  of  their  wounds.  On  Ptolemy's  side  the  losses  were 
fifteen  hundred  infantry  and  seven  hundred  cavalry  ;  sixteen  of  his 
elephants  were  killed  and  most  of  the  others  captured." 

Such  was  the  result  of  the  battle  of  Raphia  between 
King  Ptolemy  and  Antiochus  for  the  possession  of  Coele- 
Syria. 

Though  as  a  warrior  and  statesman  the  fourth  Ptolemy 
shows  a  decided  inferiority  to  his  father,  he  seems  to  have 
been  deserving  of  some  praise  as  a  patron  of  literature,  and 
showed  his  admiration  of  Homer  by  building  a  magnificent 
temple  in  his  honour.  Then,  as  a  builder,  he  emulated 
Rameses  or  Thotmes,  and  remains  of  his  work  are  to  be 
seen  at  Edfu  and  Philae,  as  well  as  at  Thebes,  where  he 
raised  that  exquisite  shrine  known  as  Deir-el-Medinet,  of 
which  some  account  is  given  in  a  later  chapter,  on  Thebes 
and  its  temples. 

We  may  profitably  skip  the  short  and  unimportant 
reigns  of  several  Ptolemies  to  the  ninth  Ptolemy,  called 
usually  Euergetes  II.  Antiochus  IV.  of  Syria  had  con- 
quered a  great  part  of  Lower  Egypt  and  attempted  to 
restore  Philometer,  a  son  of  Ptolemy  V.  The  Alexan- 
drians, however,  who,  as  Professor  Mahaffy  points  out, 
"voiced"  the  will  of  Egypt  more  completely  than  Paris 
does  of  France  at  the  present  day,  supported  the  claims 
of   Euergetes.     All   through  this   reign,   or   rather  joint 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  37 

reigns,  of  Euergetes  and  Philometer,  we  find  the  Roman 
Senate  acting  as  arbiter,  and  both  sovereigns  went  to 
Rome  to  prosecute  their  claims  in  person.  A  curious 
side-light  is  thrown  on  these  intrigues  by  Plutarch,  who 
mentions  that  Euergetes  offered  the  chance  of  becoming 
Queen  of  Egypt  to  Cornelia,  the  high-souled  mother  of  the 
Gracchi.  No  doubt  "  a  Cornelia  on  the  throne  at  Alex- 
andria would  have  been  a  real  novelty  among  the  Cleo- 
patras.  But  the  great  Roman  lady  probably  held  him 
in  such  esteem  as  an  English  noblewoman  now  would  hold 
an  Indian  rajah  proposing  marriage." 

In  146  B.  c,  Philometer  led  an  army  to  help  his 
son-in-law,  Alexander,  recover  Syria  from  Demetrius,  and 
died  from  wounds  received  in  battle.  There  is  a  striking 
contrast  between  the  characters  of  the  two  brother-kings, 
who  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  jointly  controlled 
the  destinies  of  Egypt.  Philometer  (Ptolemy  VII.)  was 
one  of  the  most  able  of  the  later  sovereigns  of  the  house 
of  Ptolemy.  A  good  and  apparently  unbiassed  sketch  of 
his  life  is  given  in  the  following  passage  from  Polybius: 

"  Ptolemy,  King  of  Syria,  died  from  a  wound  received  in  the  war ; 
a  man  who,  according  to  some,  deserved  great  praise  and  abiding 
remembrance ;  according  to  others  the  reverse.  If  any  king  before 
him  ever  was,  he  was  mild  and  benevolent,  a  very  strong  proof  of 
which  is  that  he  never  put  any  of  his  own  <  friends '  to  death  on 
any  charge  whatever,  and  I  believe  also  not  a  single  man  at  Alex- 
andria owed  his  death  to  him.  Again,  though  he  was  notoriously 
ejected  from  his  throne  by  his  brother  in  the  first  place,  when  he 
got  a  clear  opportunity  against  him  in  Alexandria,  he  granted  him 
a  complete  amnesty ;  and  afterwards,  when  his  brother  once  more 
made  a  plot  against  him  to  seize  Cyprus,  though  he  got  him  body 
and  soul  into  his  hands  at  Lapthus,  he  was  so  far  from  punishing 
him  as  an  enemy,  that  he  even  made  him  grants  in  addition  to 
those  which  formerly  belonged  to  him  in  virtue  of  the  treaty  made 
between  them,  and,  moreover,  promised  him  his  daughter.  How- 
ever, in  the  course  of  a  series  of  successes  and  prosperity,  his  mind 
became  corrupted;  he  fell  a  prey  to  the  dissoluteness  and  efEem- 


38  THE    CITY    OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

inacy  characteristic  of  the  Egyptians,  and  these  vices  brought  him 
into  serious  disasters." 


Space  fails  us  for  a  sketch  of  the  reigns  of  the  four 
Ptolemies  who  succeed  Philopater.  Under  Epiphanes 
(Ptolemy  V.),  the  domestic  affairs  of  Egypt  fell  into  a 
state  of  deplorable  confusion ;  "  one  rebellion  succeeded 
another,  and  anarchy  prevailed  everywhere."  In  order  to 
maintain  his  authority,  Epiphanes  was  fain  to  ask  the 
protection  of  the  Roman  Senate.  From  this  time  down 
to  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Octavius,  the  country  of  the 
Pharaohs  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  Roman  prov- 
ince under  a  viceroy,  who  was  allowed  the  titular  rank  of 
king. 

On  the  death  of  Ptolemy  YI.,  in  181  B.  c,  a  period  of 
alternate  despotism,  anarchy,  and  joint-sovereignty  begins, 
which  is  difficult  to  follow.  In  b.  c.  146,  Euergetes  II. 
(Ptolemy  IX.)  besieges  Alexandria  and  occupies  the 
throne,  though  he  is  nominally  merely  the  regent  of  the 
kingdom,  and  guardian  of  the  infant  sovereign,  Ptolemy, 
surnamed  Neos.  Euergetes,  however,  when  he  had  got 
the  Alexandrians  on  his  side,  did  not  scruple  to  put  the 
infant  king  to  death,  and  occupy  himself  the  blood-stained 
throne  of  Egypt.  After  having  reigned  some  fifteen  years 
at  Alexandria,  Euergetes  has  to  flee  to  Cyprus,  having 
alienated  his  subjects  through  his  cruelties  and  debauch- 
ery. Some  years  later  he  appears  to  have  returned  from 
exile  and  regained  possession  of  his  throne. 

It  is  difficult  to  unravel  the  confused  and  conflicting 
statements  of  the  great  historians  as  regards  the  later 
events  of  his  throne,  but  the  date  of  his  death,  117  b.  c, 
is  not  disputed. 

With  his  death  the  history  of  Ptolemaic  Egypt,  so  far  as 
it  is  worth  recording,  may  be  brought  to  a  close.  "  There 
is  nothing  of  public  interest  to  follow  till  we  come  to  the 


THE  EMPIKE  OP  THE  PTOLEMIES.       39 

last  scene,"  to  the  reign  of  the  notorious  Cleopatra  YI.,  the 
Cleopatra  of  Shakespeare. 

This  famous,  or  rather  infamous,  queen,  daughter  of 
Auletes  (Ptolemy  XIII.),  who  came  so  near  to  revolu- 
tionise the  history  of  the  Roman  Empire,  was  born  about 
69  B.  c. 

Auletes,  who  died  51  b.  c,  has  earned  the  bad  emi- 
nence of  being  the  most  worthless,  incapable,  and  cruel 
of  all  the  Ptolemies.  If  we  take  Cicero's  estimate  as 
correct,  he  was  pliant  and  persuasive  when  in  need,  mak- 
ing boundless  promises  of  money  to  men  of  influence  at 
Rome,  but  tyrannical  and  ruthless  when  in  power,  taking 
little  account  of  human  life  when  it  thwarted  his  interests, 
or  even  balked  his  pleasures.  With  the  priests,  however, 
he  seems  to  have  been  on  friendly  terms. 

With  the  succession  of  Cleopatra  we  enter  upon  one  of 
the  most  familiar  epochs  of  Egyptian,  or  rather  Roman, 
history,  and  the  intrigues  of  the  Egyptian  queen  with 
Cassar,  and  subsequently  with  Antony,  are  familiar  to  every 
one.  The  real  cause  of  the  war  which  broke  out  between 
Rome  and  Egypt  in  31  a.  d.  seems  a  little  obscure.  In 
fact,  the  conduct  of  Antony  in  celebrating  a  grand  Roman 
triumph  at  Alexandria,  after  a  doubtful  victory  (34  b.  c.) 
over  the  Parthians,  seems  to  have  alienated  and  disgusted 
the  Roman  Senate.  But  it  was  the  formal  distribution  of 
provinces  which  gave  most  offence  at  Rome,  and  proved 
the  chief  casus  belli  put  forward  by  Octavius.  This  was 
naturally  regarded  as  a  theatrical  piece  of  insolence  and 
contempt  of  his  country :  "  For,  assembling  the  people  in 
the  exercise-ground,  and  causing  two  golden  thrones  to  be 
placed  on  a  platform  of  silver,  the  one  for  him  and  the 
other  for  Cleopatra,  and  at  their  feet  lower  thrones  for 
their  children,  he  proclaimed  Cleopatra  Queen  of  Egypt, 
Cyprus,  Libya,  and  Coele-Syria,  and  with  her,  conjointly, 
Caesarion,  the  reputed  son  of  the  former  Caesar.     His  own 


40  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

sons  by  Cleopatra  were  to  have  the  style  of  '  king  of 
kings;'  to  Alexander  he  gave  Armenia  and  Media  with 
Parthia,  so  soon  as  it  should  be  overcome ;  to  Ptolemy, 
Phoenicia,  Syria,  and  Cilicia.  Alexander  was  brought  out 
before  the  people  in  Median  costume,  with  the  tiara  and 
upright  peak ;  and  Ptolemy,  in  boots  and  mantle  and  Mace- 
donian cap  done  about  with  the  diadem,  —  for  this  was  the 
habit  of  the  successors  of  Alexander,  as  the  other  was  of 
the  Medes  and  Armenians.  And  as  soon  as  they  had 
saluted  their  parents,  the  one  was  received  by  a  guard  of 
Macedonians,  the  other  by  one  of  the  Armenians.  Cleo- 
patra was  then,  as  at  other  times  when  she  appeared  in 
public,  dressed  in  the  habits  of  the  goddess  Isis,  and 
gave  audience  to  the  people  under  the  name  of  the  new 
Isis." 

The  usual  view  of  historians  is  that  Cleopatra's  flight  to 
Egypt,  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Actium,  was  prompted 
by  cowardice ;  but  in  view  of  the  strong  character  of  this 
queen,  it  is  more  likely  that  she  came  to  the  conclusion 
early  in  the  fight  that  Antony's  cause  was  lost,  and  that 
her  naval  contingent  would  only  swell  the  spoils  of  Octa- 
vlus.  She  probably  knew,  too,  that  her  life  would  be  for- 
feited if  she  were  taken  prisoner  with  her  fleet.  But  there 
was  still  a  chance,  if  Antony  were  killed  or  taken  pris- 
oner, that  she  might  negotiate  with  the  conqueror  as 
Queen  of  Egypt  with  her  fleet  and  treasure  intact.  Besides, 
as  Professor  Mahaify  points  out,  who  could  tell  what  effect 
her  personal  charms,  although  now  somewhat  mature, 
might  have  upon  Octavius  ?  She  had  already  subjugated 
two  far  greater  Romans, —  Cajsar  and  Antony, —  why  not  a 
third  ?  For  the  closing  scenes  of  Cleopatra's  life  we  can  go 
to  Shakespeare,  whose  history  here  is  less  at  fault  than  is 
the  case  in  his  English  historical  plays,  as  the  whole  narra- 
tive is  scrupulously  reproduced  from  Plutarch.  The  last 
scene  of  the  tragedy  is  vividly  pictured  by  Dion : 


THE    EMPIRE    OF    THE    PTOLEMIES.  41 

«  After  her  repast,  Cleopatra  sent  Csesar  a  letter  which  she  had 
written  and  sealed,  and  putting  everybody  out  of  the  monument  but 
her  two  women,  she  shut  the  doors.  Caesar,  opening  her  letter,  and 
finding  pathetic  prayers  and  entreaties  that  she  might  be  buried  in 
the  same  tomb  with  Antony,  soon  guessed  what  was  doing.  At 
first  he  was  going  himself  in  all  haste,  but,  changing  his  mind,  he 
sent  others  to  see.  The  thing  has  been  quickly  done.  The  messen- 
gers came  at  full  speed  and  found  the  guards  apprehensive  of  noth- 
ing ;  but  on  opening  the  doors  they  saw  her  stone-dead,  lying  upon 
a  bed  of  gold,  set  out  in  all  her  royal  ornaments.  Iras,  one  of  her 
women,  lay  dying  at  her  feet;  and  Charmion,  just  ready  to  fall, 
scarce  able  to  talk  and  hold  up  her  head,  was  adjusting  her  mis- 
tress's diadem.  And  when  one  that  came  in  said  angrily,  'Was 
this  wen  done  of  your  lady,  Charmion?'  'Perfectly  well,'  she 
answered,  'and  as  became  the  daughter  of  many  kings;'  and  as 
she  said  this,  she  fell  down  dead  beside  the  bedside." 

When  modern  people  wonder  at  the  daring  of  the  last  of 
the  Cleopatras,  who  has  been  embalmed  in  the  prose  of 
Plutarch  and  the  verse  of  Shakespeare,  they  seldom  know 
or  reflect  that  she  was  the  last  of  a  long  series  of  prin- 
cesses, probably  beautiful  and  accomplished,  certainly  dar- 
ing and  unscrupulous,  living  every  day  of  their  lives  in 
the  passion  of  love,  hate,  jealousy,  and  ambition,  wielding 
dominion  over  men  or  dying  in  the  attempt.  But,  alas! 
except  in  the  dull,  lifeless  effigies  on  coins,  we  have  no 
portraits  of  these  terrible  persons,  no  anecdotes  of  their 
tamer  moments,  no  means  of  distinguishing  one  Cleopatra 
from  the  rest,  amid  the  catalogue  of  parricides,  incests, 
exiles,  and  bereavements. 

The  battle  of  Actium  made  Octavius  master  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  Egypt  of  course  became  a  mere  prov- 
ince of  Rome,  until  it  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  rising 
Mohammedan  power  some  six  centuries  later.  The  his- 
tory of  Egypt  under  Arab  rule  will  form  the  subject  of 
the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   RULE   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

THE  period  of  some  650  years,  from  the  fall  of  the 
Ptolemaic  Empire  (b.  c.  30)  down  to  the  Mohamme- 
dan conquest  in  638  a.  d.,  need  not  detain  us  long.  This 
age  is  an  uneventful  one  for  Egypt,  now  reduced  to  the 
position  of  a  mere  province  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and 
then  —  on  the  disruption  of  the  Empire  and  its  partition  in 
395  A.  D.,  when  the  two  sons  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius, 
Arcadius  and  Honorius,  ruled  respectively  over  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Empires  —  a  portion  of  what  may  be  con- 
viently  called  the  Byzantine  Empire. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century  the  great  Semitic 
race  of  the  Saracens  begins  to  play  a  most  important  part 
in  the  world's  history,  and  with  little  difficulty  the  army  of 
the  Caliph  Omar  under  Amru  wrests  the  province  of  Egypt 
from  Rome. 

We  now  enter  upon  a  picturesque  period  of  Egyptian 
history,  though  it  is  of  more  importance  to  lovers  of  the 
arts  than  to  historians.  It  lasts  for  nearly  nine  hundred 
years,  till  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Ottoman  Turks  in 
1517.  The  chief  historical  landmarks  of  this  long  epoch 
of  Mohammedan  rule  are  Ahmed  Ibn-Tulun,  El-Muizz, 
Saladin,  and  En-Nasr  Mohammed. 

Amru,  fully  alive  to  the  suitability  of  the  site  of  the 
Roman  stronghold  of  Babylon,  builds  here  his  new  capital, 
called  Fostat  (old  Cairo).  This  is  some  two  miles  south 
of  modern  Cairo.  The  latter  city  is  often  erroneously 
attributed  to  Saladin.     This  enlightened  monarch  no  doubt 

42 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  43 

improved  the  new  capital  considerably,  and  fortified  it ;  but 
the  modern  city  dates  from  969  a.  d.,  when  El-Muizz,  the 
first  of  the  Fatimite  dynasty  (Tunis),  transferred  the  seat 
of  the  government,  and  we  might  also  say  of  the  Caliphate, 
from  Kerouan  (the  "  Holy  City  ")  to  a  site  about  two  miles 
from  Fostat.  To  this  new  city,  Gohar,  the  Caliph's  gen- 
eral, gave  the  proud  title  of  Masr-El-Kahira  (the  Victori- 
ous), a  name  which  was  corrupted  by  Europeans  into  Cairo, 
though  the  natives  still  call  it  Masr.  Gohar' s  design  was, 
however,  at  first  limited  to  a  fortress  and  palace  for  his 
master,  and  for  some  time  the  new  site  was  only  the  royal 
residence  of  the  Caliph  El-Muizz.  Here  lived  the  harem, 
the  court,  and  the  garrison,  and  in  this  enormous  enceinte 
lived,  so  say  the  Arab  chroniclers,  over  twelve  thousand 
souls.  It  was  not  till  the  reign  of  the  great  Saladin  that 
the  walls  of  the  palace  were  extended  to  include  a  city, 
which  even  then,  in  the  twelfth  century,  occupied  as  large 
a  site  as  intra-mural  Cairo  of  to-day ;  that  is,  about  three 
miles  long,  and  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a  half  wide. 

"  Most  of  these  changes,"  remarks  Mr.  Stanley  Lane- 
Poole,  "  can  be  traced  in  the  present  city.  A  small  part  of 
Fostat  remains  under  the  name  of  Masr-El-Atika  (old 
Cairo),  separated  from  the  capital  by  the  great  mounds  of 
rubbish  which  indicate  vanished  suburbs.  Of  Kahira  the 
whole  growth  can  readily  be  traced.  The  second  wall  still 
stands  on  the  north  side,  though  the  magnificent  Norman- 
looking  gateway  of  the  Bab-En-Nasr,  or  '  Gate  of  Victory,' 
with  its  mighty  square  towers  and  fine  vaulting  within,  and 
the  Bab-El-Futuh,  or  *  Gate  of  Conquests,'  flanked  with 
massive  round  towers,  are  not  quite  on  their  original  sites. 
The  cornice  and  frieze,  adorned  with  fine  Kufic  inscriptions, 
which  run  along  the  face  of  the  gateway  and  the  faces  and 
inner  sides  of  the  two  towers  half-way  from  the  ground,  no 
less  than  its  solid  and  clean-cut  masonry,  distinguish  the 
'  Gate  of  Victory '  among  Saracenic  monuments. 


44  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

"  The  second  wall  is  still  visible  at  the  eastern  boundary  of 
the  city,  and  its  other  sides  may  be  traced  by  the  names  of 
demolished  gates,  as  the  Water  Gate  (Bab-El-Bar),  the  Bab- 
El-Luk,  and  the  Bab-El-Khalak ;  while  the  Bab  Zuweyla, 
still  standing  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  buildings  in  Cairo,  though  its  walls  and  inscrip- 
tions are  daubed  over  with  plaster,  and  its  towers  are  low- 
ered to  make  room  for  the  minarets  of  the  adjoining 
Mosque  of  El-Muayyad.  The  second  wall,  thus  mapped 
out,  must  have  run  from  near  the  present  bridge  over  the 
Ismailiya  Canal,  along  the  western  side  of  the  Ezbekiya 
(where  the  wall  was  standing  in  1842),  to  near  the  Abdin 
Palace,  where  it  turned  up  to  the  Bab  Zuweyla,  and  was 
prolonged  to  the  eastern  wall. 

"  Since  it  was  built,  the  Nile  has  considerably  changed  its 
course,  and  now  runs  much  farther  to  the  westward.  Sal- 
adin's  wall  was  a  restoration  of  this  in  part,  but  his  addition 
(begun  in  1170)  round  the  citadel  is  in  partial  preservation, 
like  the  fortress  itself,  though  the  continuation  round  the 
site  of  Katai  on  the  south  is  demolished.  The  names  of 
the  gates,  however,  show  that  the  limits  of  the  present  city 
on  the  south  are  nearly  what  they  were  in  Saladin's  day, 
and  this  wall  must  have  run  from  the  Citadel  to  near  the 
Mosque  of  Ibn  Tulun,  enclosed  it,  and  turned  north  to  meet 
the  old  wall  near  Bab-El-Luk. 

"  The  limits  of  the  modern  additions  are  only  too  plain, 
but  street  improvements  of  the  reigning  dynasty  happily  do 
not  extend  to  the  old  Fatima  Quarter,  and  indeed  scarcely 
affect  Saladin's  city,  except  in  the  prolongation  and  widen- 
ing of  the  Mooski,  the  opening  of  the  broad  Boulevard 
Mehemet  Ali  up  to  the  Citadel,  and  the  laying  out  of  the 
Rumayla  Quarter  and  the  Kara-Meydan  in  the  usual  Euro- 
pean style.  With  these  exceptions,  the  modern  additions 
extend  only  from  the  Ezbekiya  Quarter  to  the  river,  and 
consists  of   a  number  of   parallel  boulevards   and  rondes 


THE   KULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  45 

places^  where  ugly  Western  uniformity  is  partly  redeemed 
by  some  cool,  verandahed  villas,  and  the  grateful  shade  of 
trees." 

In  short,  the  three  creators  of  modern  Cairo  are  Sala- 
din,  Mehemet  Ali,  and  Ismail.  Saladin  built  it,  Mehemet 
Ali  enlarged  it,  and  Ismail  embellished  and  modernised 
it. 

Under  the  Saracens  Egypt  was  governed  by  no  less  than 
a  hundred  and  forty-four  rulers,  some  of  whom  were 
merely  governors  or  viziers  under  the  Damascus  and  Bag- 
dad Caliphs  respectively,  while  the  more  powerful  of  these 
dynasties,  as  we  shall  see  later,  claimed  the  title  of  Caliphs, 
and  were  virtually  independent  kings  of  Egypt. 

These  dynasties  of  Mohammedan  rule,  amounting  to  no 
less  than  ten,  cover  a  period  of  history  comparatively  fea- 
tureless and  unimportant.  Egypt  under  the  Caliphs  seems 
to  have  no  external  history  to  speak  of,  except  during  the 
reign  of  Saladin,  and  some  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans,  such 
as  El-Ashraf,  who  captured  Acre,  and  Bursbey,  who  recon- 
quered Cyprus.  The  only  important  dynasties  are  those  of 
the  Omayyades,  Abbassides,  Fatimites  (Tunis),  Ayyubides 
(Kurdish),  and  the  two  slave  dynasties  of  the  Mamelukes, 
—  the  Baharide  and  the  Circassian.  The  most  picturesque 
and  interesting  are  the  two  latter. 

This  is  a  period  which  Mr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole  has  made 
his  own,  and  for  a  graphic  picture  of  the  Mameluke  days  we 
must  go  to  this  author's  "  Arabian  Society  in  the  Middle 
Ages,"  "  The  Art  of  the  Saracens,"  and  other  works  deal- 
ing with  mediaeval  Egypt.  An  appreciable  part  of  the  his- 
tory of  this  period  is  to  be  read  in  the  Cairo  mosques,  for 
most  of  these  magnificent  shrines  of  Islam  were  built  by 
the  Mameluke  sovereigns. 

In  order  to  understand,  however,  the  course  of  events  in 
Egypt  from  the  fourth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  bear  in  mind  the  involved  question  of  the  Caliphate 


46  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  its  succession.  The  first  four  Caliphs,  Abu-Bekr,  Omar, 
Othman,  and  Ali,  were  either  kinsmen  or  principal  adherents 
of  the  Prophet.  Then  we  have  the  rule  of  the  Omayyades, 
which  lasted  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  When  the  last 
of  the  race,  Marwan  II.,  was  killed  in  battle,  a  descendant  of 
Abbas,  an  uncle  of  Mohammed,  founded  the  important 
dynasty  of  Abbassides,  and  the  seat  of  the  Caliphate  is 
transferred  from  Damascus  to  Bagdad.  In  the  tenth  cen- 
tury the  power  of  the  Caliphate  of  Bagdad  declined,  and  its 
claim  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  sovereignty  of  Islam 
was  only  acknowledged  in  theory  by  the  Egyptian  Cali- 
phate. In  fact  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad  gradually  fell 
under  the  control  of  their  viziers  or  governors  in  Egypt, 
just  as  the  Merovingian  sovereigns  had  become  subject  to 
the  "  Mayors  of  the  Palace.''  In  the  twelfth  century  we 
see  the  Fatimite  dynasty  of  Tunis,  who  claimed  descent 
from  Fatima,  the  daughter  of  Mohammed,  in  possession  of 
the  Egyptian  Caliphate,  and  members  of  this  family  suc- 
ceeded in  maintaining  their  rule  for  over  a  century,  till  in 
1169  they  were  overthrown  by  the  victorious  Saladin,  who 
founded  the  Ayyubides  (Kurdish)  dynasty. 

This  great  sovereign  does  not  at  first  claim  the  title  of 
Caliph,  but  brings  back  Egypt  nominally  under  the  spirit- 
ual control  of  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  Saladin  deservedly 
ranks  as  one  of  the  greatest,  and  incontestably  the  most 
enlightened,  of  all  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt  from  Pharaonic 
days  downwards,  and  under  his  rule  Egypt  is  transformed 
from  a  small  kingdom  into  a  powerful  empire.  In  fact, 
this  period  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  most  important 
events  in  European  history,  and  every  one  is  familiar  with 
Saladin's  magnificent  campaigns  in  Palestine,  his  conquest 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  treaty  with  the  English  king, 
Richard  I.,  and  these  are  only  a  small  part  of  his  exploits. 
Saladin,  too,  combined  in  a  marked  degree  the  genius  for 
war  with  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  says  Mr.  Stanley  Lane- 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  47 

Poole ;  and  the  walls  of  Cairo  and  the  noble  Citadel  bear 
witness  to  his  encouragement  of  architecture. 

"  Saladin's  empire  needed  a  strong  hand  to  keep  it 
united,  and  the  number  of  relatives  who  demanded  their 
share  of  his  wide  provinces  rendered  the  survival  of  the 
Ayyuby  dominion  precarious.  Saladin's  brother  controlled 
the  centrifugal  tendencies  of  his  kindred  for  a  while,  and 
his  son,  El-Kamil,  gloriously  defeated  Jean  de  Brienne  on 
the  spot  where  the  commemorative  city  of  El-Mansura 
(the  Victorious)  was  afterwards  erected  by  the  conqueror. 
After  his  death  in  1237,  however,  the  forces  which  made 
for  disintegration  became  too  strong  to  be  resisted ;  vari- 
ous petty  dynasties  of  the  Ayyuby  family  were  tempora- 
rily established  in  the  chief  provinces,  only  to  make  way 
shortly  for  the  Tartars,  and  in  Egypt  and  in  Syria  notably 
for  the  Mamelukes,  who  in  1250  succeeded  to  the  glories 
of  Saladin." 

The  strict  meaning  of  Mameluke  is  "owned,"  and  the 
Egyptian  Mamelukes  were  originally  white  slaves.  They 
were  first  employed  by  the  Sultan  Es-Salih  in  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century  as  mercenaries,  and  in  many 
respects  they  resembled  the  Janissaries  of  the  later  Turks, 
a  body  first  raised  for  a  similar  purpose  by  the  Ottoman 
Sultans,  about  a  century  later.  The  Mamelukes  soon  ob- 
tained the  control  of  the  army  and  became  an  important 
factor  in  the  body  politic  of  Egypt,  and  in  a  few  years 
gained  the  chief  authority,  by  1250  a.  d.  becoming  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  seize  the  throne. 

The  Sultans  of  this  Mameluke  dynasty  offer  remarkable 
contrasts.  Slaves  in  origin,  and  warriors  by  trade  as  well 
as  by  inclination,  bloodthirsty  and  ferocious,  this  dynasty  of 
adventurers  had  an  appreciation  of  art  which  would  have 
done  credit,  as  Mr.  Lane-Poole  aptly  remarks,  to  the  most 
civilised  rulers  that  ever  sat  on  a  constitutional  throne. 
"  It  is  one  of  the  most  singular  facts  in  Eastern  history, 


48  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

that,  wherever  these  rude  Tartars  penetrated,  there  thej 
inspired  a  great  and  vivid  enthusiasm  for  art.  It  was  the 
Tartar  Ibn-Tulun  who  built  the  first  example  of  the  true 
Saracenic  mosque  at  Cairo ;  it  was  the  line  of  Mameluke 
Sultans,  all  Turkish  or  Circassian  slaves,  who  filled  Cairo 
with  the  most  beautiful  and  abundant  monuments  that  any 
city  can  show.  The  arts  were  in  Egypt  long  before  the 
Tartars  became  her  rulers,  but  they  stirred  them  into  new 
life,  and  made  the  Saracenic  work  of  Egypt  the  centre 
and  headpiece  of  Mohammedan  art. 

"Why  this  should  be, — why  the  singularly  tyrannical, 
bloodthirsty,  and  unstable  rule  of  the  Mamelukes  should 
have  fostered  so  remarkable  a  development  of  art,  —  re- 
mains, as  we  have  said,  a  mystery ;  but  the  fact  is  indis- 
putable that  the  period  of  Frankish  and  Circassian  tyranny 
in  Egypt  and  Syria  was  the  age  of  efflorescence  of  the 
purest  Saracenic  art  in  all  its  branches. 

"  Wherever  the  Saracens  carried  their  conquering  arms, 
a  new  and  characteristic  style  of  art  is  seen  to  arise.  In 
the  mosques  and  private  houses  of  Cairo,  of  Damascus, 
of  Kairowan,  of  Cordova  and  Seville,  throughout  Egypt, 
Syria,  Mesopotamia,  Persia,  North  Africa,  and  Spain,  and 
in  Sicily  and  the  Balearic  Isles,  we  trace  their  influence 
in  the  thoroughly  individual  and  characteristic  style  of 
architecture  and  ornament  which  is  variously  known 
as  'Arabian,'  'Mohammedan,'  'Moorish,'  and  'Saracenic' 
The  last  term  is  the  best,  because  the  most  comprehensive. 
'  Arabian '  seems  to  imply  that  the  art  owed  its  origin  to 
Arabia  and  the  Arabs,  whereas  it  was  only  when  the  Arabs 
left  Arabia  and  ceased  to  be  purely  Arabian,  that  the  style 
of  art  miscalled  Arab  made  its  appearance.  '  Mohamme- 
dan '  indicates  that  the  art  was  the  work  and  invention  of 
Muslims,  which  can  hardly  be  maintained  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  the  first  great  monument  of  Saracenic  architec- 
ture in  Egypt  was  designed  by  a  Christian,  and  that  much 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  49 

of  the  finest  work  was  produced  by  Copts  and  Greeks. 
'Moorish*  limits  the  art  to  the  Mohammedan  rulers  of 
Spain,  where  indeed  a  singularly  magnificent  development 
of  the  style  took  place;  but  this  was  neither  the  earliest 
nor  the  most  typical  form.  '  Saracenic '  art  includes  all 
the  work  of  the  countries  under  Saracen  rule,  and,  more- 
over, carries  with  it  the  perfectly  accurate  impression  that 
the  chief  development  of  the  art  was  at  the  time  when  the 
Saracens  were  a  fighting  power,  and  the  name  was  a  house- 
hold word  among  the  crusading  nations  of  the  West." 

The  famous  collection  in  the  National  Museum  of 
Arabic  Art,  which  is  described  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
affords  abundant  proofs  of  the  extraordinary  development 
in  the  decorative  arts  attained  by  Egypt  under  the  Mame- 
lukes. 

By  some  historians  Melik-es-Salih  is  reckoned  as  the 
founder  of  the  Mameluke  dynasty.  It  is  true  that  it  was 
during  his  reign  that  the  Mamelukes,  whose  influence  and 
power  had  been  steadily  increasing  after  the  death  of 
Saladin,  first  became  a  factor  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  the  government  of  the  country ;  but  Melik  was  himself 
one  of  the  Ayyubide  Kurds,  and  was,  in  fact,  a  grand- 
nephew  of  Saladin.  On  Melik's  death  and  the  accession  of 
a  weak  and  incapable  sovereign,  the  Mamelukes,  headed 
by  El-Muizz-Ebek,  seized  the  throne.  Ebek,  who  had 
strengthened  his  position  by  marrying  Melik's  widow,  was 
in  fact  the  founder  of  the  Mameluke  dynasty. 

The  genesis  of  this  dynasty  of  adventurers  is  well  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole : 

"  Before  El-Salih's  death,  a  certain  number  of  Ms  Mamelukes  had 
risen  from  the  ranks  of  common  slaves  to  posts  of  honour  at  their 
master's  court;  they  had  become  cup-bearers,  or  tasters,  or  mas- 
ters of  the  horse  to  his  Majesty,  and  had  been  rewarded  by  enfran- 
chisement; and  these  freed  Mamelukes  became,  in  turn,  masters 
and  owners  of  other  Mamelukes.     Thus,  at  the  very  beginning  of 


60  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

the  Mameluke  history,  we  find  a  number  of  powerful  amurs,  or  lords, 
who  had  risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  slaves,  and  in  turn  became  the 
owners  of  a  large  body  of  retainers,  whom  they  led  to  battle,  or  by 
whose  aid  they  aspired  to  ascend  the  throne.  The  only  title  of 
kingship  among  these  nobles  was  personal  prowess,  and  the  com- 
mand of  the  largest  number  of  adherents.  In  the  absence  of  other 
influences,  the  hereditary  principle  was  no  doubt  adopted,  and  we 
find  one  family,  that  of  Kalaun,  maintaining  its  succession  to  the 
throne  for  several  generations ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  successor  to  the 
kingly  power  was  the  most  powerful  lord  of  the  day,  and  his  hold  on 
the  throne  depended  chiefly  on  the  strength  of  his  following,  and 
his  conciliation  of  the  other  nobles.  The  annals  of  Mameluke 
dominion  are  full  of  instances  of  a  great  lord  reducing  the  author- 
ity of  the  reigning  Sultan  to  a  shadow,  and  then  stepping  over  his 
murdered  body  to  the  throne." 

The  great  Sultan  Bebars  is  a  typical  representative  of 
the  rulers  of  this  military  oligarchy  which  controlled  the 
destinies  of  Egypt  for  over  three  centuries.  In  many  re- 
spects Bebars  resembled  Saladin,  and  his  romantic  career 
has  much  in  common  with  that  of  the  founder  of  the 
present  dynasty,  Mehemet  AH.  His  wonderful  force  of 
character  and  diplomatic  talents  no  doubt  contributed  to 
his  strikingly  successful  career  as  much  as  his  personal 
courage  and  capacity  for  governing  men,  qualities  in  which 
few  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans  were  deficient.  These  quali- 
ties, too,  enabled  this  one-eyed  slave  not  only  to  gain  the 
throne,  but  to  keep  it  for  nearly  twenty  years, —  an  unusu- 
ally long  reign  for  a  Mameluke,  which  averages  five  or  six 
years  only,  —  and  to  found  an  empire  that  endured  for 
nearly  three  hundred  years. 

Bebars' s  reign  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  history  of  this 
epoch,  and  in  Marco  Polo  we  glean  many  interesting  details 
of  this  picturesque  personality.  Bebars  was  a  native  of 
Kipchak,  a  district  between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Ural 
Mountains.  Of  magnificent  physique,  he  had  one  serious 
defect,  from  the  slave-trader's  point  of  view,  —  a  cataract 
in  one  eye.     On  this  account  he  only  sold  for  <£20.     He 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  61 

eventually  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Sultan  Es- 
Salih.  In  the  war  against  the  saintly  Louis  of  France  and 
his  Crusaders,  Bebars  distinguished  himself  so  markedly 
that  he  was  given  high  command  in  the  Mameluke  army. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  dissensions  and  rivalry  of  the 
Mameluke  generals,  and  the  incapacity  of  the  Sultan 
Ed-Mudhaffer,  he  seizes  the  throne  with  little  difficulty, 
having  won  over  the  army  to  his  side. 

Thus  begins  that  singular  succession  of  Mameluke  Sul- 
tans which  lasted,  in  spite  of  special  tendencies  to  disso- 
lution, for  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years. 

"  The  external  history  of  these  years  is  monotonous.  Wars  to 
repel  the  invasions  of  the  Tartars,  or  to  drive  the  Christians  from 
the  Holy  Land,  struggles  between  rival  claimants  to  the  throne, 
embassies  to  and  from  foreign  powers,  including  France  and  Venice, 
the  Khan  of  Persia  and  the  King  of  Abyssinia,  constitute  the  staple 
of  foreign  affairs.  To  enumerate  the  events  of  each  reign,  or  even 
the  names  of  the  fifty  Mamelukes  who  sat  on  the  throne  at  Cairo, 
would  be  wearisome  and  unprofitable  to  the  reader.  But  it  is  differ- 
ent with  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Mameluke  period.  In  this  flow- 
ering time  of  Saracenic  art,  a  real  interest  belongs  to  the  life  and 
social  condition  of  the  people  who  made  and  encouraged  the  finest 
productions  of  the  Oriental  artist.  History  can  show  few  more 
startling  contrasts  than  that  offered  by  the  spectacle  of  a  band  of 
disorderly  soldiers,  to  all  appearance  barbarians,  prone  to  shed 
blood,  merciless  to  their  enemies,  tyrannous  to  their  subjects,  yet  de- 
lighting in  the  delicate  refinements  which  art  could  afford  them  in 
their  home  life,  lavish  in  their  endowment  of  pious  foundations, 
magnificent  in  their  mosques  and  palaces,  and  fastidious  in  the 
smallest  details  of  dress  and  furniture.  Allowing  all  that  must  be 
allowed  for  the  passion  of  the  barbarian  for  display,  we  are  still  far 
from  an  explanation  how  the  Tartars  chanced  to  be  the  noblest  pro- 
moters of  art,  of  literature,  and  of  public  works,  that  Egypt  had 
known  since  the  days  of  the  Ptolemies." 

To  resume  our  sketch  of  the  most  picturesque  figure 
among  all  the  Mameluke  sovereigns : 

"  So  well  did  Bebars  organise  his  wide-stretching  provinces,  that 
no  incapacity  or  disunion  among  his  successors  could  pull  down  the 


62  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

fabric  he  had  raised,  until  the  wave  of  Ottoman  conquest  swept 
at  last  upon  Egypt  and  Syria.  To  him  is  due  the  constitution  of 
the  Mameluke  army,  the  rebuilding  of  a  navy  of  forty  war-galleys, 
the  allotment  of  feofs  to  the  lords  and  soldiers,  the  building  of 
causeways  and  bridges,  and  digging  of  canals  in  various  parts  of 
Egypt. 

"  He  strengthened  the  fortresses  of  Syria,  and  garrisoned  them 
with  Mamelukes;  he  connected  Damascus  and  Cairo  by  a  postal 
service  of  four  days,  and  used  to  play  polo  in  both  cities  within  the 
same  week." 

V 

In  Marco  Polo  will  be  found  an  interesting  example 
of  the  business  hours  of  this  famous  Sultan.  He  arrived 
before  Tyre  one  night ;  a  tent  was  immediately  pitched  by 
torchlight;  the  secretaries,  seven  in  number,  were  sum- 
moned with  the  commander-in-chief ;  and  the  adjutant- 
general  (Anur  Alam),  with  the  military  secretaries,  were 
instructed  to  draw  up  orders.  For  hours  they  ceased  not 
to  write  letters  and  diplomas,  to  which  the  Sultan  affixed 
his  seal ;  this  very  night  they  indited  in  his  presence  fifty- 
six  diplomas  for  high  nobles,  each  with  its  proper  intro- 
duction of  praise  to  God.  One  of  these  letters  has  been 
preserved ;  it  is  a  very  characteristic  epistle,  and  displays 
a  grim  and  sarcastic  appreciation  of  humour.  It  appears 
that  Boemond,  Prince  of  Antioch,  was  not  present  at  the 
assault  of  that  city  by  Bebars,  and  the  Sultan  kindly  con- 
veyed the  information  of  the  disaster  in  a  personal  despatch. 
He  begins  by  ironically  complimenting  Boemond  on  his 
change  of  title,  from  prince  to  count,  in  consequence  of 
the  fall  of  his  capital,  and  then  goes  on  to  describe  the 
siege  and  capture  of  Antioch,  sparing  his  correspondent  no 
detail  of  the  horrors  that  ensued.  The  letter  winds  up  by 
an  ironical  felicitation  on  Boemond's  absence :  "  This  letter 
holds  happy  tidings  for  thee ;  it  tells  thee  that  God  watches 
over  thee,  inasmuch  as  in  these  latter  days  thou  wast  not 
in  Antioch !  As  not  a  man  hath  escaped  to  tell  thee  the 
tale,  we  tell  it  thee ;  as  no  soul  could  apprise  thee  that 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  63 

thou  art  safe,  while  all  the  rest  have  perished,  we  apprise 
thee  I "  It  would  seem  that,  not  unnaturally,  the  unfor- 
tunate Prince  of  Antioch  was  highly  incensed  with  the 
Sultan's  sarcastic  attentions. 

The  most  ample  details  of  the  outward  life  of  the  Mame- 
lukes may  be  gathered  in  the  chronicles  of  the  Arab  his- 
torian, El-Makrizy ;  but  if  we  seek  to  know  something  of 
the  domestic  life  of  the  period,  we  must  go  elsewhere.  We 
occasionally  find,  indeed,  in  this  historian  an  account  of 
the  revels  of  the  court  on  great  festivals,  and  he  tells  us 
how,  during  some  festivities  in  Bebars's  reign,  there  was  a 
concert  every  night  in  the  Citadel,  where  a  torch  was 
gently  waved  to  and  fro  to  keep  the  time. 

"  But  to  understand  the  home  life  of  the  Mamelukes,  we  must 
turn  to  the  '  Thousand  and  One  Nights,'  where,  whatever  the 
origin  and  scene  of  the  stories,  the  manners  and  customs  are  drawn 
from  the  society  which  the  narrators  saw  about  them  in  Cairo  in 
the  day  of  the  Mamelukes.  From  the  doings  of  the  characters  in 
that  immortal  story-book,  we  may  form  a  nearly  accurate  idea  how 
the  Mamelukes  amused  themselves;  and  the  various  articles  of 
luxury  that  have  come  down  to  us  —  the  goblets,  incense-burners, 
bowls,  and  dishes  of  fine  inlaid  silver  or  gold  —  go  to  confirm  the 
fidelity  of  the  picture.  The  wonderful  thing  about  this  old  Moham- 
medan society  is  that  it  was  what  it  was  in  spite  of  Islam.  With 
all  their  prayers  and  fasts  and  irritating  ritual,  the  Moslems  of  the 
Middle  Ages  contrived  to  amuse  themselves.  Even  in  their  relig- 
ion they  found  opportunities  for  enjoyment.  They  made  the  most 
of  the  festivals  of  the  faith,  and  put  on  their  best  clothes;  they 
made  up  parties  to  visit  the  tombs,  indeed,  but  to  visit  them  right 
merrily  on  the  backs  of  their  asses ;  they  let  their  servants  go  out 
and  amuse  themselves,  too,  in  the  gaily  illuminated  streets,  hung 
with  silks  and  satins,  and  filled  with  dancers,  jugglers,  and  revellers, 
fantastic  figures,  the  Oriental  Punch,  and  the  Chinese  Shadows ;  or 
they  went  to  witness  the  thrilling  and  horrifying  performances  of 
the  dervishes." 

Contemporaneous  with  the  accession  of  the  first  Mame- 
luke dynasty  is  the  commencement  of  the  great  Ottoman 
Empire.     The  Ottoman  Turks  were  so  called  from  their 


54  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

first  leader,  Othman,  who,  towards  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  seemed  likely  to  swallow  up  not  only  the 
Asiatic  provinces  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  but  all  Chris- 
tendom. The  Turks  were  not,  like  the  Saracens,  a  Sem- 
itic race,  nor  were  they  of  Aryan  descent,  but  of  Mongolian 
or  Tartar  origin.  Though  the  Turks  and  Arabs  are  often 
loosely  described,  as  if  they  were  of  the  same  nationality, 
they  have,  in  fact,  nothing  in  common  except  their  religion. 
In  1453  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  Constantinople,  was 
taken  by  Mohammed  the  Conqueror,  after  a  siege  which 
lasted  several  years.  In  1517  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Selim, 
known  as  the  "  Inflexible,"  who  had  already  added  Syria 
to  the  Ottoman  Empire,  conquered  Egypt. 

From  the  Ottoman  conquest  in  1517  till  the  French 
occupation  in  the  last  years  of  the  last  century,  and  the 
subjugation  of  the  country  to  the  famous  adventurer 
Mehemet  Ali,  a  sketch  of  whose  reign  is  given  later,  the 
history  of  Egypt  is  entirely  without  interest. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   MAKING   OF   EGYPT. 

A  BABE  outline  of  the  principal  events  of  Egyptian 
history,  from  the  end  of  Mehemet  Ali^s  reign  in  1848, 
to  the  suppression  of  Arabi's  rebellion  in  1882,  will  suffice 
to  preserve  the  thread  of  the  narrative  in  the  sketch  of 
Egyptian  history  which  has  been  attempted  in  the  previous 
chapters. 

Mehemet's  successor,  Abbas,  seems  to  indicate  what 
biologists  call  a  "  throw-back  "  to  the  type  of  Oriental  des- 
pot, of  which  some  of  the  Mameluke  sovereigns  are  ex- 
amples. All  that  can  be  said  for  him  is  that  he  maintained 
the  strictest  authority  over  the  army  and  his  officials,  and 
that  the  public  security  in  Egypt  was  never  greater  than 
during  his  reign.  He  was  followed  by  his  uncle,  Said,  who 
had  the  same  leaning  towards  Western  civilisation  as  his 
father,  Mehemet,  and  was,  in  many  respects,  an  enlightened 
prince.  To  him  is  due,  more  than  to  any  other  sovereign, 
the  great  scheme  of  the  maritime  canal. 

Many  important  public  engineering  schemes  were  car- 
ried on  during  this  reign,  including  the  partial  restoration 
of  the  Barrage,  the  railway  from  Cairo  to  Alexandria,  the 
building  of  the  National  Museum  (since  removed  to  Ghizeh). 
In  spite  of  the  crippled  state  of  the  finances.  Said  Pacha 
abolished  monopolies  and  equalised  the  incidence  of  taxa- 
tion, and  inaugurated  numerous  other  beneficial  fiscal 
reforms.  Unfortunately  his  reign  was  short,  and  in  1863 
he  was  succeeded  by  Ismail,  grandson  of  Mehemet  Ali. 

65 


56  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Ismail,  in  spite  of  his  passion  for  European  institutions 
and  his  exalted  aims  for  the  national  development  of  Egypt, 
which  he  attempted  to  raise  to  the  position  of  a  European 
Power,  was  little  more  than  a  magnificent  failure  as  a  nine- 
teenth century  sovereign.  Though  he  did  much  for  the 
material  progress  of  the  country,  and  spent  enormous  sums 
in  what,  in  the  case  of  Egypt,  can  in  an  ironical  sense 
only  be  termed  "  reproductive  public  works,"  such  as  roads, 
bridges,  canals,  railways,  etc.,  he  may  be  said  to  have  done 
more  harm  to  his  country  than  any  sovereign  since  the 
age  of  the  Ptolemies.  His  prodigality,  which  will  be  re- 
ferred to  later,  was  proverbial,  and  the  fact  that  the  public 
debt  on  his  accession  was  three  millions,  and  by  the  end 
of  his  reign  had  increased  to  nearly  thirty-fold^  speaks 
volumes  for  the  unfitness  of  Ismail  to  continue  as  the 
sovereign  of  a  country  in  the  last  throes  of  financial  em- 
barrassment, and  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy. 

"  Ismail's  mistake  lay,  not  in  the  aim  he  set  before  him,  but  in 
his  manner  of  trying  to  attain  it.  No  one  can  doubt  that  he  was 
right,  as  the  great  founder  of  his  dynasty,  Mehemet  Ali,  was  right, 
in  striving  to  bring  Egypt  into  line  with  European  civilisation.  .  .  . 
Ismail  failed  for  lack  of  patience  and  judgment.  He  tried  to  rush 
his  transformation  scene.  He  wanted,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  to 
turn  the  most  conservative  people  on  earth  into  a  living  embodi- 
ment of  all  the  virtues  of  a  progressive  and  enlightened  civilisation. 
He  had  no  patience  for  the  slow  conversion  of  a  nation  almost  as 
stolid  and  immovable  as  their  own  Pyramids.  Their  whole  system 
was  to  be  changed  in  an  instant  by  a  coup  de  theatre^  with  trap- 
doors, stage-thunder,  and  a  shower  of  fireworks.  It  was  not  so  to 
be  done,  as  Ismail  has  by  this  time  realised  in  his  meditative  seclu- 
sion at  Stambul.^ 

"  Inexhaustible  patience,  tact,  and  discretion  are  needed  before  the 
immemorial  vices  of  Egyptian  government  and  the  time-honoured 
corruption  of  Egyptian  society  can  be  transformed." 

In  1876,  the  European  bondholders,  fearing  national 
bankruptcy  and  repudiation  of  the  innumerable  loans,  in- 

1  This  was  written  before  Ismail's  death  in  1896. 


THE    MAKING   OF   EGYPT.  57 

duced  their  respective  governments  to  interfere ;  and  the 
revenue  and  expenditure  were  placed  under  the  control  of 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  Great  Powers.  Ismail, 
having  placed  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
Financial  Conmiission,  the  Porte,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Powers,  dethroned  Ismail,  and  placed  his  eldest  son,  Tew- 
fik,  on  the  throne. 

Tewfik  was  virtually  the  prot^g^  of  the  Powers,  and  this 
naturally  lessened  his  prestige  considerably  in  the  eyes  of 
his  subjects.  Egypt  was,  in  fact,  practically  a  big  estate, 
with  the  Great  Powers  as  landlord,  and  Tewfik  as  tenant. 

The  army,  from  the  first,  seemed  to  have  got  out  of 
hand,  and  in  1881  the  military  leaders,  combining  with 
the  heads  of  the  so-called  National  movement,  whose  chief 
ostensible  object  was  the  freeing  of  Egypt  from  European 
influence  and  control,  the  disaffection  of  the  people  culmi- 
nated in  open  rebellion  under  Arabi,  the  minister  of  war. 
In  July,  the  English  fleet  went  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Khedive  by  bombarding  Alexandria,  and  in  less  than  two 
months  an  English  expeditionary  force,  under  Sir  Garuch 
(now  Lord)  Wolseley,  stamped  out  the  rebellion  by  a 
crushing  defeat  of  Arabi' s  troops  at  Tel-el-Kebir.  This 
practically  marks  the  end  of  Egypt  as  an  independent 
kingdom  (except  for  the  nominal  allegiance  due  to  the 
Porte),  and  from  that  date  to  the  present  the  history  of 
Egypt  is  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  country 
under  English  influence. 

At  the  very  outset.  Great  Britain,  in  dealing  with 
Egyptian  reforms,  had  to  contend  with  the  serious  ex- 
ternal obstacles  due  to  the  peculiar  position  of  the  country 
through  its  dependence  on  the  Porte,  and  to  the  interna- 
tional tutelage  as  regards  finances  to  which  she  was  subject. 
Obviously,  with  insufficient  material  the  morale  of  govern- 
ment would  be  lessened.  Under  Ismail  the  suzerainty  of 
Turkey  was  limited,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  to  the 


68  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

right  to  exact  an  annual  tribute  of  some  £700,000.  But 
the  accession  of  Tewfik  was  the  Sultan's  opportunity,  and 
the  new  firman  included  one  very  serious  restriction  on  the 
borrowing  power  of  the  vassal  state.  The  sanction  of 
the  Porte  was  necessary,  equally  with  that  of  the  Pow- 
ers, before  Egypt  could  negotiate  any  fresh  loan. 

With  this  important  exception,  most  of  the  powers  and 
privileges  of  sovereignty  could  be  exercised  by  the  Khe- 
dive. Egypt  was,  indeed,  far  more  hampered  by  the  Great 
Powers,  as  guardians  of  the  caisse  (treasury),  than  by 
the  Sultan  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Another  obstacle 
was  the  privileges  granted  to  foreigners  which  are  known 
as  the  Capitulations,  of  which  the  most  important  were 
the  exemption  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  local  courts 
of  justice,  and  immunity  from  taxation.  These  privileges, 
too,  from  the  time  of  Mehemet  Ali,  had  been  notoriously 
abused  by  the  large  and  powerful  foreign  colonies  in  Egypt. 

This  immunity  from  the  local  courts  had,  during  the  reign 
of  Ismail,  been  particularly  abused  by  the  army  of  conces- 
sionaires who  exploited  Egypt  at  that  period.  Thousands 
of  preposterous  claims  used  to  be  brought  against  the  Gov- 
ernment by  these  adventurers,  in  the  consular  courts,  —  the 
only  jurisdiction  to  which  foreigners  were  subject,  —  who 
were  naturally  predisposed  in  favour  of  the  claimant. 

"  Indeed,  Egypt,  in  the  sixties  and  seventies,  was  the  happy  hunt- 
ing-ground of  financiers  and  promoters  of  the  shadiest  description. 
An  industrial  or  commercial  enterprise  might  or  might  not  be  profit- 
able to  the  persons  undertaking  it;  but  the  man  who  was  lucky 
enough  to  have  a  case  against  the  Government  could  regard  his 
fortune  as  assured.  The  same  ruler,  who  could  with  impunity 
perpetrate  acts  of  gross  perfidy  and  injustice  towards  his  native 
subjects,  was  himself  mercilessly  tricked  and  plundered  by  the  for- 
eign vampires  that  found  such  a  congenial  home  upon  Egyptian 
soil. 

".  .  .  If  the  personality  of  Ismail  was  an  essential  factor  in  the  ruin 
of  his  country,  it  needed  a  whole  series  of  unfortunate  conditions  to 


THE    MAKING   OF   EGYPT.  69 

render  that  personality  as  it  actually  became.  It  needed  a  nation 
of  submissive  slaves,  not  only  bereft  of  any  vestige  of  liberal  institu- 
tions, but  devoid  of  the  slightest  spark  of  the  spirit  of  liberty.  It 
needed  a  bureaucracy  which  it  would  have  been  hard  to  equal  for 
its  combination  of  cowardice  and  corruption.  It  needed  the  whole 
gang  of  swindlers  —  mostly  European  —  by  whom  Ismail  was  sur- 
rounded, and  to  whom,  with  his  phenomenal  incapacity  to  make  a 
good  bargain,  —  strange  characteristic  in  a  man  so  radically  dishon- 
est, —  he  fell  an  easy  prey. 

"  A  concession,  nominally  asked  for  to  forward  some  useful  enter- 
prise or  business,  was  actually  sought  simply  in  order  to  find  an 
excuse  for  throwing  it  up,  and  then  claiming  compensation  from  the 
Government.  \Yhen  the  Mixed  Tribunals  (international  courts 
established  to  decide  civil  actions)  were  established,  there  were 
£40,000,000  of  outstanding  claims  made  by  foreigners  against  the 
Government.  The  extravagant  nature  of  these  claims  may  be  esti- 
mated by  the  fact  that  in  one  claim,  where  30,000,000  francs  had  been 
demanded,  the  Mixed  Courts  awarded  the  plaintiff  £1,000,  Ismail 
himself  was  fully  alive  to  the  sharp  practice  of  these  European 
adventurers  and  concession-hunters,  —  convertible  terms  for  the  most 
part,  —  and  with  a  genial  cynicism  used  to  rally  these  European  con- 
cessionaires on  their  extortionate  practices.  During  the  interview 
with  a  famous  concessionaire,  Ismail  told  one  of  his  suite  to  close  the 
window,  'for  if  this  gentleman  catches  cold  it  will  cost  me  £10,000.' 

"  But  in  Egypt  European  influence  was  far  too  strong  to  permit 
of  this  solution  of  the  financial  difficulty,  and  the  Powers  embodied 
a  kind  of  composition  with  Egypt's  creditors  by  what  is  known  as 
the  Law  of  Liquidation,  by  which  the  country  was  freed  from  the 
threatened  insolvency.  The  interest  on  the  debt  was  immensely 
reduced,  and  Egypt  was  able  once  more  to  meet  her  liabilities,  '  but 
tied  hand  and  foot,  unable  to  move,  almost  unable  to  breathe,  with- 
out the  consent  of  Europe.'  " 

The  weak  points  in  the  position  of  Egypt  are  admirably 
summed  up  by  Sir  Alfred  Milner : 

"  A  Government  which  cannot  legislate  for,  and  cannot  tax,  the 
strangers  resident  in  its  dominions,  —  especially  when  those  strangers 
form,  by  virtue  of  their  numbers,  wealth,  and  influence,  a  very 
important  section  of  the  community,  —  is  lamentably  shorn  of  its 
due  measure  of  authority  and  of  respect.  But  this  weakness  in  the 
position  of  Egypt,  springing  from  the  Capitulations,  has  been  greatly 


60  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

enhanced  by  the  further  disabilities  and  restrictions  which  she  has 
brought  upon  herself  by  her  unfortunate  financial  career.  There  is 
no  countiy  in  the  world  to  the  position  of  which  a  policy  of  profuse 
expenditure  and  reckless  borrowing  was  more  ill-suited.  Other 
states  which  have  plunged  in  the  same  direction  —  though  perhaps 
none  ever  went  to  such  lengths  —  could  at  least  fall  back,  in  the  last 
resort,  on  the  desperate  remedy  of  repudiation." 

But  the  Egyptian  Government  was  too  much  under  the 
thumb  of  the  Great  Powers  to  adopt  such  an  ultima  ratio. 
Native  creditors  might,  and  indeed  were,  defrauded  with 
impunity ;  but  European  influence  was  too  powerful  to  per- 
mit of  such  a  poKcy  in  the  case  of  foreign  bondholders. 

To  return  to  the  condition  of  Egypt  after  the  collapse  of 
the  National  Party  and  the  fall  of  Arabi  Pacha. 

With  the  crushing  of  Arabics  rebellion,  England's  work 
in  Egypt  had  only  begun,  no  doubt  much  to  the  surprise 
and  disgust  of  the  English  Government,  which  had  inter- 
fered with  no  other  object  than  to  "  restore  order."  But 
the  quick  march  of  events,  and  the  fearfully  rapid  spread  of 
popular  and  religious  excitement,  were  too  much  even  for 
the  most  pronounced  supporters  of  a  laissez  fairs  attitude, 
and  a  policy  of  simple  temporary  intervention  was  neces- 
sarily converted  by  the  course  of  events  into  one  of  more 
or  less  permanent  occupation. 

"  Here  was  a  country,  the  very  centre  of  the  world,  the  great  high- 
way of  nations,  —  a  country  which,  during  the  last  half -century,  had 
been  becoming  ever  more  and  more  an  appanage  of  Europe,  —  in 
which  thousands  of  European  lives  and  millions  of  European  capital 
were  at  stake,  and  in  which,  of  all  European  nations.  Great  Britain 
was,  by  virtue  of  its  enormous  direct  trade  and  still  more  enormous 
transit  trade,  the  most  deeply  interested.  And  this  country,  which 
the  common  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  all  the  Powers  had  just  dragged 
from  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  was  now  threatened,  not  with  bank- 
ruptcy merely,  but  with  a  reign  of  blank  barbarianism." 

The  European  Concert  seemed  as  little  able  as  Turkey, 
Egypt's  nominal  protector,  to  cope  with  this  pressing  emer- 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  61 

gency;  and  France,  the  partner  of  England,  shirked  her 
duties  in  a  somewhat  pusillanimous  fashion.  Consequently- 
Great  Britain  was  morally  bound  to  "  bell  the  cat."  The 
difficulty  of  "  restoring  order,"  or,  as  it  was  officially  worded, 
"  restoring  the  authority  of  the  Khedive,"  was  enormously 
increased  by  the  fact  that  not  only  had  the  whole  machinery 
of  government  been  upset  by  the  revolutionaries  who  called 
themselves  the  National  Party,  but  the  whole  fabric  of  gov- 
ernment had  rested  on  a  rotten  base.  It  had  no  moral  or 
material  force  at  its  back,  and  the  personal  prestige  of  the 
Khedive  Tewfik  had  been  seriously  impaired. 

Two  courses  were  open  to  the  British  Government. 
(1)  They  could  have  contented  themselves  with  restoring 
order  externally,  and  left  the  responsibilities  for  its  main- 
tenance to  Turkish  troops.  Such  a  policy  would  not, 
however,  be  tolerated  in  a  country  which,  ''  with  its  large 
number  of  European  residents  and  swarms  of  foreign  tour- 
ists, lives,  so  to  speak,  constantly  under  the  eye  of  civilised 
mankind."  In  short,  such  a  barbarous  policy  seemed  out 
of  the  question.  (2)  If  the  welfare  of  Egypt  was  to  be 
studied,  and  the  country  to  be  put  in  the  way  of  governing 
itself  according  to  the  methods  of  civilised  states,  then  the 
only  course  was  to  be  prepared  for  an  occupation  of  the 
country  till  the  whole  machinery  of  government  could  be 
reconstructed,  and  peace  and  justice  secured  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  native  administrators  educated  in  the  methods 
of  orderly  and  honest  government.  This  was  the  task  which 
England  entered  upon ;  and  it  is  this  kind  of  veiled  protec- 
torate which  she  is  still  exercising. 

This  "  veiled  protectorate  "  was  of  course  in  the  nature  of 
a  compromise ;  but  for  many  reasons  annexation,  or  even 
an  absolute  protectorate,  was  undesirable.  The  creation  of 
this  disguised  protectorate  was  notified  to  the  Great  Pow- 
ers, January  3,  1883,  in  the  memorable  despatch,  quoted 
below,  of  Lord  Granville. 


62  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

"  Although,  for  the  present,"  says  that  document,  "  a  British  force 
remains  in  Egypt  for  the  preservation  of  public  tranquillity,  her 
Majesty's  Government  are  desirous  of  withdrawing  it  as  soon  as 
the  state  of  the  country  and  the  organisation  of  proper  means  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Khedive's  authority  will  admit  of  it.  In  the 
meantime,  the  position  in  which  her  Majesty's  Government  are 
placed  towards  his  Highness  imposes  upon  them  the  duty  of  giving 
advice  with  the  object  of  securing  that  the  order  of  things  to  be 
established  shall  be  of  a  satisfactory  character,  and  possess  the  ele- 
ments of  stability  and  progress." 

This  constitutes  one  of  the  famous  "pledges  of  with- 
drawal "  with  which  England  is  twitted  in  season  and  out 
of  season  by  the  French  press.  In  fact,  in  a  leading  French 
journal  published  at  Alexandria,  these  pledges  are  daily 
printed  in  a  prominent  position  on  the  front  page. 

In  connection  with  this  memorable  "  Note "  may  be 
quoted  the  important  despatch  —  a  corollary  of  the  first 
—  sent  by  Lord  Salisbury  to  the  English  envoy  to  the 
Porte  in  1887: 

"  The  Sultan  is  pressing  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  to  name 
a  date  for  thQ  evacuation  of  Egypt,  and  in  that  demand  he  is  avow- 
edly encouraged  by  one,  or  perhaps  two,  of  the  European  Powers. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  every  desire  to  give  him  satisfaction 
upon  this  point ;  but  they  cannot  fix  even  a  distant  date  for  evac- 
uation, until  they  are  able  to  make  provision  for  securing  beyond 
that  date  the  external  and  internal  peace  of  Egypt.  The  object 
which  the  Powers  of  Europe  have  had  in  view,  and  which  is  not  less 
the  desire  of  her  Majesty's  Government  to  attain,  may  be  generally 
expressed  by  the  phrase,  '  The  neutralisation  of  Egypt ;  *  but  it  must 
be  neutralisation  with  an  exception  designed  to  maintain  the  secur- 
ity and  permanence  of  the  whole  arrangement.  The  British  Gov- 
ernment must  retain  their  right  to  guard  and  uphold  the  condition 
of  things  which  will  have  been  brought  about  by  the  military  action 
and  large  sacrifice  of  this  country.  So  long  as  the  Government  of 
Egypt  maintains  its  position,  and  no  disorders  arise  to  interfere 
with  the  administration  of  justice  or  the  action  of  the  executive 
power,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  no  soldier  belonging  to  any  foreign 
nation  should  remain  upon  the  soil  of  Egypt,  except  when  it  may  be 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  63 

necessary  to  make  use  of  the  land-passage  from  one  sea  to  the  other. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  would  willingly  agree  that  such  a  stipu- 
lation should,  whenever  the  evacuation  had  taken  place,  apply  to 
English  as  much  as  any  other  troops ;  but  it  will  be  necessary  to  re- 
strict this  provision,  as  far  as  England  is  concerned,  to  periods  of 
tranquillity.  England,  if  she  spontaneously  and  willingly  evacuates 
the  country,  must  retain  a  treaty  right  of  intervention,  if  at  any 
time  either  internal  peace  or  external  security  should  be  seriously 
threatened.  There  is  no  danger  that  a  privilege  so  costly  in  its 
character  will  be  used  unless  the  circumstances  imperatively  de- 
mand it." 

These  documents  are  such  important  landmarks  in  Eng- 
land's Egyptian  policy,  that  no  excuse  need  be  offered  for 
quoting  them  at  some  length. 

It  is  proverbially  easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event ;  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  an  uncompromising  protectorate, 
albeit  merely  temporary,  would  have  been  the  most  satis- 
factory course. 

"  It  is  certain  that  if  we  had  grasped  the  Egyptian  nettle  boldly, 
if  we  had  proclaimed  from  the  first  our  intention  of  exercising,  even 
for  a  time,  that  authority  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  do  exercise, 
we  could  have  made  the  situation  not  only  much  more  endurable 
for  the  Egyptians,  but  much  easier  for  ourselves.  Had  we  seen  our 
way  to  declaring  even  a  temporary  protectorate,  we  might  have 
suspended  the  Capitulations,  if  we  could  not  have  got  rid  of  them 
altogether,  as  France  has  done  in  Tunis.  Had  we  been  willing  to 
guarantee  the  debt,  or  a  portion  of  the  debt,  not  only  could  the 
interest  have  been  at  once  reduced,  and  the  financial  burdens  of 
the  country  enormously  lightened,  but  Europe  would  no  doubt  have 
agreed  to  free  the  Egyptian  Government  from  the  network  of  re- 
strictions which  had  been  imposed  upon  it  for  the  protection  of  the 
bondholders.  In  order  to  have  Great  Britain  as  surety  for  their 
bond,  the  creditors  would  have  abandoned  with  alacrity  all  their 
minor  safeguards." 

And  now  we  will  consider  the  more  important  reforms 
and  improvements  carried  out  by  England  during  this 
virtual  protectorate  of  the  country.  They  may  conven- 
iently be   divided   according   to   the   great  State  depart- 


64  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

ments,  —  the  army,  finance,  public  works,  and  justice. 
But  in  order  to  understand  the  significance  and  value  of 
her  great  reforms  in  the  internal  government  of  Egypt, 
it  is  necessary  to  have  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  pecu- 
liar difficulties  —  a  maze  of  obstacles  both  external  and 
internal  —  which  England  had  to  contend  against;  and, 
therefore,  in  the  preceding  pages  we  have  attempted  to 
indicate  the  peculiar  nature  of  these  difficulties. 

The  delicate  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Egyptian 
and  English  Governments  constitute  one  of  the  gravest 
difficulties  of  England's  position  as  the  virtual  protector 
and  guardian  of  Egypt;  and  the  presence  of  an  English 
army  of  occupation  in  an  autonomous  province  of  a 
friendly  Power, — for  that  is  the  nominal  relation  of  Egypt 
to  Turkey,  —  is  not  the  least  of  these  difficulties. 

The  British  troops  have,  of  course,  no  sort  of  status  in 
the  country.  They  are  not  the  soldiers  of  the  Khedive,  nor 
foreign  soldiers  invited  by  the  Khedive.  They  are  not  the 
soldiers  of  the  protecting  Power,  since  there  is  in  theory 
no  protecting  Power.  In  theory  their  presence  is  an  acci- 
dent, and  their  character  that  of  simple  visitors.  At  the 
present  moment  they  are  no  longer,  from  the  military  point 
of  view,  of  vital  importance,  for  their  numbers  have  been 
repeatedly  reduced ;  and  for  several  years  past  they  have 
not  exceeded,  and  do  not  now  exceed,  three  thousand 
men.^  It  is  true  that  their  presence  relieves  a  certain 
portion  of  the  Egyptian  army  from  duties  it  would  other- 
wise have  to  perform,  and  that  if  the  British  troops  were 
altogether  withdrawn,  the  number  of  Egyptian  soldiers 
might  have  to  be  somewhat  increased.  But  its  value  as 
part  of  the  defensive  forces  of  the  country  does  not,  of 
course,  constitute  the  real  importance  and  meaning  of  the 
British  army  of  occupation.      It  is  as  the  outward  and 

1  This  was  written  in  1892.  Since  that  date  the  numbers  have  been  increased, 
and  the  full  strength  of  the  army  is  now  nearer  four  than  three  thousand. 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  65 

visible  sign  of  the  predominance  of  British  influence,  of 
the  special  interest  taken  by  Great  Britain  in  the  affairs 
of  Egypt,  that  this  army  is  such  an  important  element 
in  the  present  situation.  Its  moral  effect  is  out  of  all 
proportion  to  its  actual  strength. 

The  most  pressing  of  all  the  reforms  so  imperatively 
needed  in  Egypt  was  the  remodelling  and  the  reorganisation 
of  the  discredited  and  distinctly  non-effective  Egyptian  army. 
The  first  step  was  simple  enough,  viz.,  to  get  rid  of  the 
existing  army.  This  was  done  by  the  historic  Decree  of 
December,  1882,  —  "The  Egyptian  Army  is  disbanded." 
But  Sir  Evelyn  Wood,  to  whom  the  task  of  creating  a  new 
army  was  intrusted,  did  not  despair  of  converting  the 
fellah  into  a  useful  fighting  machine ;  and  his  faith  in  what, 
after  the  miserable  show  the  native  troops  had  made  in 
the  recent  rebellion,  looked  like  very  poor  material,  has 
in  the  last  campaign  been  thoroughly  justified. 

The  fellaheen  are  no  doubt  wanting  in  initiative  power 
and  individuality,  but  when  intelligently  led  they  fight 
well.  In  fact,  as  is  the  case  with  Turkish  soldiers,  good 
leadership  is  simply  everything  in  the  field.  Moreover,  the 
Egyptian  soldiers  are  not  wanting  in  the  useful  quality 
of  insensibility  to  danger,  which  is  a  tolerable  substitute 
for  true  courage. 

Hitherto,  not  only  had  the  native  soldiers  been  badly 
led  in  battle,  but  they  were  constantly  defrauded  of  their 
pay,  and  treated  with  harshness  and  cruelty  by  their  ofii- 
cers.  Now,  under  the  new  regime,  they  are  properly  fed 
and  clothed,  and,  though  discipline  is  strict,  they  are 
treated  as  sentient  beings  by  the  new  English  officers. 
Moreover,  they  are  properly  looked  after  when  ill :  under 
the  old  regime  a  military  hospital  did  not  exist.  Perhaps 
the  conduct  of  the  English  officers,  when  cholera  was 
raging  in  1896,  did  more  han  anything  else  to  gain  the 
confidence  and  respect  of  the  new  army.     The  twenty  or 


66  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

thirty  "accursed"  Christians  nursed  these  men  day  and 
night,  and  never  shrank  from  doing  the  most  menial  offices 
for  them. 

The  British  officers,  as  Mr.  Moberly  Bell  aptly  remarks, 
are  also  an  educational  force  of  immense  value :  six  thou- 
sand natives  taught  obedience  and  discipline,  and  en- 
couraged to  take  a  pride  in  themselves  and  their  work, 
are  a  solid  gain  to  Egypt.  The  result  is,  that,  on  one 
occasion  when  six  soldiers  were  required  for  the  Soudan, 
—  formerly  regarded  by  the  fellahs  as  a  place  of  exile 
for  life,  —  the  whole  battalion  volunteered. 

While  a  native  army  was  all  very  well,  it  required  to 
be  "  stiffened  "  by  English  troops.  Besides,  it  was  obvious 
that  without  the  moral  support  afforded  by  the  presence 
of  an  English  army  of  occupation  it  would  be  hopeless  to 
carry  out  any  lasting  projects  of  reform. 

Those  responsible  for  the  reform  in  the  army  had,  of 
course,  within  wide  limits,  a  free  hand.  Very  different 
was  the  case  of  those  responsible  for  placing  on  a  sound 
basis  the  Egyptian  finances.  From  the  outset  they  were 
met  by  the  fact  that  the  representatives  of  the  Powers  on 
the  Commission  of  the  eaisse  regarded  the  Egyptian  finan- 
cial administration  as  the  mere  bailiff  of  the  bondholders, 
and  were  inclined  to  starve  the  public  services  for  their 
benefit.  The  cardinal  principle  of  Egyptian  finance  in- 
volved, in  fact,  a  perpetual  struggle  between  the  eaisse  and 
the  Government.  The  interest  on  the  debt  being  the  first 
charge  on  the  eaisse,  all  the  revenue  is  paid  first  to  the 
treasury,  but  the  Government  can  draw  upon  any  surplus 
up  to  the  limit  of  the  "  authorised  "  annual  expenditure. 

So  fettered  was  Egypt  by  the  Powers  in  financial  mat- 
ters, that  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  variable  budget 
was  allowed.  A  certain  fixed  sum  (about  six  millions)  is 
allowed  her  annually  for  all  the  expenses  of  government. 
If,  however,  there  still  remains  a  surplus  in  the  eaisse 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  67 

after  the  interest  on  the  debt  and  the  authorised  expendi- 
ture have  been  met,  half  goes  to  the  reduction  of  the  debt, 
and  half  to  the  Government.  In  the  event  of  there  being 
no  surplus,  and  an  extra  sum  is  yet  required  by  the  Gov- 
ernment for  a  public  work  of  undoubted  utility,  it  must 
raise  double  that  sum  from  the  taxpayers,  because  of  the 
stringent  rules  which  insist  on  half  of  all  the  revenue 
(after  interest  and  authorised  expenditure  are  paid)  being 
devoted  to  the  reduction  of  the  debt. 

This,  in  a  nutshell,  was  the  condition  of  Egypt's  financial 
position  when  England  entered  upon  the  task  of  bringing 
the  revenue  and  the  expenditure  into  a  state  of  stable 
equilibrium.  The  results  have  exceeded  the  most  sanguine 
expectations.  The  chief  features  of  the  new  fiscal  policy 
are  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  the  taxes,  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  corvee  (the  forced  labour  of  the  peasants  for 
the  dredging  and  repair  of  the  canals,  the  most  grievous 
of  all  the  burdens  of  the  people),  greater  outlay  on  repro- 
ductive works,  and  less  expenditure  on  "  non-effective '' 
objects.  All  this  has  been  accomplished  without  any 
increase  in  the  annual  expenditure ;  and  the  increase  in  the 
revenue,  which  has  been  remarkably  uniform  and  steady 
since  1886  to  the  present  year,  has  been  concurrent  with 
lightened  taxation.  This  has  been  possible,  owing  to  the 
careful  economy  in  the  administration  and  improved  meth- 
ods of  collection.  Under  Ismail  an  enormous  proportion 
of  the  taxes,  actually  wrung  from  the  overburdened  fel- 
laheen, never  reached  the  treasury  at  all,  but  was  absorbed 
by  the  officials  and  the  farmers  of  the  taxes. 

"  Two  great  factors  have  combined  to  bring  about  the  financial 
recuperation  of  Egypt,  —  the  prevention  of  waste  on  the  part  of  the 
administration,  and  the  development  of  the  productive  powers  of  the 
country.  As  far  as  the  prevention  of  waste  is  concerned,  the  first 
essential  was  a  proper  system  of  accounts.  Accounts  are  the  foun- 
dation of  finance.  You  may  have  good  accounts  and  a  bad  financial 
administration,  but  you  cannot  have  good  finance  with  bad  accounts. 


68  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

There  was  nothing  more  fatal  in  the  financial  chaos  of  the  days  of 
Ismail  than  the  manner  in  which  the  private  property  of  the  Khe- 
dive was  jumbled  up  with  the  property  of  the  State.  This  mischiev- 
ous confusion  was  put  an  end  to  when  Ismail's  vast  estates  were 
surrendered  to  his  creditors,  and  a  regular  civil  list  substituted  for 
the  multifarious  revenues  which  at  one  time  flowed  into  the  coffers 
of  the  sovereign  of  Egypt." 

The  creation  of  a  solvent  Egypt  has,  indeed,  been  mainly 
the  work  of  Sir  Edgar  Vincent  and  his  successors  in  the 
office  of  financial  adviser  to  the  Khedive.  This  reestablish- 
ment  of  solvency  is  directly  traceable  to  increased  produc- 
tion. 

(  The  material  wealth  of  Egypt  is  far  from  being  exhausted ; 
aWif  proper  measures  are  taken  to  economise  her  poten- 
tial productiveness,  there  is  no  reason  why,  in  less  than  a 
generation,  she  should  not  attain  "  a  degree  of  prosperity 
as  undreamt  of  now,  as  her  present  position  of  solvency 
was  undreamt  of  only  ten  years  ago."  j 
/  It  is  all  a  question  of  water.  The  cultivable  area  might 
oe  enormously  extended  if  the  water  supply,  which  for 
many  months  of  the  year  is  practically  unlimited,  could  be 
properly  utilised  on  a  large  scale  by  means  of  canals  and 
reservoirs,    j 

V  From  the  time  of  the  Caliphs  downwards,  this  truth 
sefems  to  have  been  recognised  by  the  more  enlightened 
Egyptian  sovereigns  and  statesmen.  It  was  the  Caliph 
Omar  who  gave  the  following  advice  to  his  viceroy :  "  Be- 
ware of  money-lenders,  and  devote  one-third  of  thy  income 
to  making  canals."  Had  Ismail  taken  this  counsel  of  per- 
fection to  heart,  the  regeneration  of  Egypt  need  not  have 
ren  left  to  Great  Britain  and  the  other  Great  Powers.  ") 
Except  in  abnormal  cases,  the  Egyptian  cultivator  can 
afford  to  pay  his  taxes  if  he  receives  a  proper  supply  of 
water  for  his  crops.  From  time  immemorial,  Egyptian  law 
has  recognised  the  intimate  connection  between  land  tax 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  69 

and  water  supply.  The  land  which  in  any  given  year 
gets  no  water,  is  for  that  year  legally  exempt  from  all 
taxation  whatever.  As  soon  as  it  gets  water  its  liability 
is  established.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  mere  fact  of 
receiving  some  water,  though  it  may  set  up  the  liability 
of  the  cultivator  to  pay,  does  not  necessarily  insure  his  ca- 
pacity to  do  so.  In  order  to  insure  that,  he  must  get  his 
water  in  proper  quantities  and  at  the  proper  times.  But 
this  is  just  what,  in  thousands  of  instances,  he  could 
not  get,  as  long  as  the  irrigation  system  remained  in  that 
state  of  unutterable  neglect  and  confusion  into  which  it 
had  fallen  in  tho  period  preceding  the  British  occupation. 

\^i  the  long  catalogue  of  beneficent  measures  by  whi<5li 
the  fax-paying  power  of  the  Egyptian  people  has  been  in- 
creased, the  greatest  land  most  essential  is  the  reform  of 
tKe  irrigation  system. 

f  It  would  not  be  easy  to  exaggerate  the  enormous  impor- 
taiK5e  of  irrigation  in  Egypt.  An  adequate  and  sound  sys- 
tem of  irrigation  implies,  in  fact,  not  only  its  commercial 
and  agricultural  prosperity ,^  but  its  very  existence  as  a 
oivilised  and  solvent  State.    \ 

(  In  many  respects,  as  w^  have  shown,  Egypt  is  a 
unique  country,  but  only  Government  officials  are  able  to 
realise  fully  the  deep  significance  of  Herodotus's  epigram, 
which  attempts  to  sum  up  the  one  great  feature  of  this 
"  Land  of  Paradox  "^  in  the  pregnant  aphorism,  "  Egypt  is 
tbe  gift  of  the  Nile."  \ 

VTo  understand  ev^n  the  very  A  B  (7  of  the  Egyptian 
system  of  agriculture,  two  great  facts  must  be  borne  in 
mind.  The  first  is  that  the  country  is  watered,  not  by 
rain,  but  by  the  river.  In  Upper  Egypt  rain  practically 
never  falls.  Even  in  Lower  Egypt  it  is  a  negligible  quan- 
tity. The  second  great  fact  is  that  the  river  is  not  only 
the  irrigator,  but  the  fertiliser  of  the  soil.  The  fine,  red- 
dish-brown mud,  which  the  Blue  Nile  washes  down  from 


70  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  volcanic  plateaus  of  Abyssinia,  mixed  with  organic  mat- 
ter from  the  swamp  region  of  the  White  Nile,  does  more 
than  manure  can  do  for  the  annual  renovation  of  the  land. 

Having  grasped  these  essential  facts,  we  are  able  to 
understand  the  reason  of  there  being  two  systems  of  agri- 
culture in  Egypt.  In  Upper  Egypt  the  natural  inundation  is 
not  supplemented  by  a  subsidiary  system  of  irrigation  canals 
(except  the  flood  canals)  and  reservoirs,  and  the  methods 
are  absolutely  the  same  as  those  sculptured  on  the  walls 
of  Pharaonic  temples.  After  the  spring  harvest,  the  land 
lay  idle  till  the  next  inundation.  This  primeval  system 
answered,  no  doubt,  for  cereals,  but  not  for  cotton  and  sugar, 
two  of  the  most  profitable  of  the  earth's  products  for  which 
the  Egyptian  climate  is  admirably  suited.  But  perennial 
irrigation  is  reserved  for  these  crops,  and  they  must  be  wat- 
ered, not  drowned. 

The  important  distinction  between  the  two  kinds  of  irri- 
gation must  always  be  borne  in  mind.  In  the  Upper  Nile 
Valley,  the  aim  of  the  cultivator  is  to  cover  as  much  land 
as  possible  with  the  Nile  water  and  its  deposit  of  fertilising 
mud.  In  the  more  scientific  farming  of  the  Delta,  the 
efforts  of  the  cultivator  were  mainly  confined  to  controlling 
the  Nile  inundation,  —  to  keep  it  away  during  high  flood, 
and  to  retain  as  much  as  possible  of  the  water  during  the 
period  of  low  Nile.  To  Mehemet  Ali  is  due  the  credit  of 
inventing  this  system  of  perennial  irrigation  and  encourag- 
ing the  cultivation  of  those  more  valuable  crops,  cotton  and 
sugar,  in  the  Delta,  which  has  given  Egypt  a  high  position 
in  the  markets  of  the  world  for  these  commodities.  But 
Mehemet  All's  scientific  methods  were  too  advanced  for 
the  times,  and  depended  for  success  upon  the  continuous 
personal  supervision  of  his  French  engineers.  This  was 
not  given ;  and  local  prejudices  being  against  these  "  new- 
fangled notions,"  Mehemet's  admirable  conception  was  a 
failure. 


THE    MAKING   OF    EGYPT.  71 

Of  the  specific  works  of  reform  in  this  department,  the 
Barrage  was  one  of  the  most  important.  This  great  dam, 
however,  forms  the  subject  of  a  separate  chapter. 

Irrigation  on  the  Delta  has  now  been  put  on  a  proper 
footing.  There  is  a  complete  network  of  main  and  subsidi- 
ary canals  designed  on  scientific  principles,  with  the  Bar- 
rage as  the  starting-point. 

Great  importance  has  also  been  given,  as  will  be  seen 
from  the  following  extract  from  Lord  Cromer's  last  report 
(February,  1897),  to  the  important  work  of  drainage : 

"  Including  the  cost  of  pumping  out  Lake  Mareotis,  about  £52,000 
was  spent  upon  drainage  works  in  1896.  For  this  sum,  180  kilome- 
tres of  new  drains  were  dug.  The  irrigation  service  is  now  extending 
the  drainage  system  into  the  higher  and  more  highly  cultivated 
tracts,  where  water  is  abundant,  and  where  the  soil  would  in  time 
deteriorate  if  drains  were  not  constructed.  Although  about  £500,000 
have  already  been  spent  on  drains  in  Lower  Egypt,  a  further  large 
expenditure  of  money  will  be  required  before  it  can  be  said  that  the 
drainage  system  is  complete. 

"  It  may  safely  be  asserted  that  funds  could  hardly  be  applied  to  a 
more  necessary  work,  or  to  one  which  would  bring  in  a  quicker 
return  on  the  capital  expended.  In  Egypt,  exhausted  soil  recovers 
its  productive  power  very  rapidly.  Whenever  a  drain  is  dug,  the 
benefit  caused  is  quickly  apparent  in  the  shape  of  increased  produce. 

"For  some  years  past,  the  Department  of  Public  Works  has 
devoted  all  its  available  credits  to  the  improvement  of  the  drainage 
system.  In  1897  nearly  all  the  budget  allotment  for  new  works  will  be 
spent  on  those  specially  connected  with  the  removal  of  the  water  from 
the  subsoil. 

"  For  in  every  part  of  the  country  drainage  projects  are  in  course 
of  preparation.  If,  however,  in  order  to  complete  the  system  of 
drainage,  the  Government  relies  wholly  upon  such  sums  as  can  be 
granted  annually  out  of  the  resources  at  its  disposal,  a  long  time 
must  elapse  before  the  work  is  completed.  Advantage  has  therefore 
been  taken  of  the  fact  that  large  sums  of  money  are  held  in  the 
special  Reserve  Fund,  to  apply  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Debt  for 
a  grant  of  £250,000  to  be  spent  on  drainage  in  1897.  I  am  glad  to 
be  able  to  report  that  the  Commissioners  have  complied  with  this 
request." 


72  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Very  different  in  character  have  been  the  irrigation  oper- 
ations in  Upper  Egypt,  where  reservoirs  take  the  place  of 
canals.  The  chief  work  here  has  been  the  reclamation  of 
the  Sharahi  districts.  This  is  the  term  given  to  lands 
which,  owing  to  their  receiving  no  water,  are  relieved  of  all 
taxation.  Obviously,  few  public  works  could  be  more 
directly  and  more  immediately  remunerative  to  the  State 
than  this.  For  instance,  in  the  year  of  low  Nile,  ^300,000 
of  taxes  had  to  be  abandoned.  ^ 

What  is  imperatively  required  in  the  Upper  Nile  Valley 
is  not  a  great  dam  like  the  Barrage,  but  a  large  reservoir 
for  retaining  the  superfluous  flood-water  for  distribution 
during  the  summer.  This  need  is  admitted  on  all  hands, 
but  the  burning  question  of  Egyptian  irrigation  was  for 
many  years  narrowed  to  the  comparative  merits  of  the  pro- 
posed sites.  As,  however,  Assouan  has  now  been  definitely 
selected  by  the  Government  for  the  site  of  this  reservoir,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  rival  projects  for  a  storage 
reservoir  at  Wady  Haifa,  Kalabsheh,  or  Wady  Rayan  in 
the  Fayyum.  It  goes  without  saying,  that,  with  an  increased 
supply  of  water,  the  amount  of  crops  could  be  enormously 
increased  in  the  Delta  and  Upper  Egypt.  But  while  in 
Lower  Egypt  the  increase  would  be  in  additional  reclaimed 
land,  in  Upper  Egypt,  where  the  cultivated  area  cannot  be 
extended,  increased  cultivation  simply  means  summer  as 
well  as  winter  crops. 

Experts  estimate  that  a  reservoir  capable  of  storing  about 
two  thousand  millions  cubic  metres  a  year,  and  providing 
one  hundred  thousand  acres  with  summer  irrigation,  would 
add  between  .£2,000,000  and  £3,000,000  annually  to  the 
produce  of  the  country ;  and  as  Sir  Colin  Scott  Moncrieff's 
estimate  of  the  cost  is  not  more  than  £2,600,000,  the 
profit  on  this  capital  would  obviously  be  enormous. 

The   English   engineers,  mostly  trained   in  the   Indian 

1  In  average  seasons  the  remission  amounts  to  about  £50,000. 


THE   MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  78 

Public  Works  Department,  did  not  fall  into  the  error  of 
attempting  to  carry  out  the  various  undertakings  connected 
with  irrigation  from  the  headquarters  at  Cairo.  Personal 
supervision  was  the  key-note  of  the  policy  of  the  new 
department.  The  country  was  divided  into  five  circles  of 
irrigation  (three  in  the  Delta,  and  two  in  Upper  Egypt), 
of  which  four  were  intrusted  to  the  newcomers  from 
India.  This  plan  of  localising  the  engineering  talent, 
which  it  had  been  found  desirable  to  import  into  the  coun- 
try, proved  a  complete  success. 

"  Viewed  as  a  whole,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  Irrigation 
Department  is,  of  all  the  branches  of  the  Egyptian  service  managed 
by  British  chiefs,  the  one  upon  which,  from  first  to  last,  it  has  been 
possible  to  look  with  the  most  unmixed  pride.  With  men  of  this 
calibre  stationed  in  every  quarter  of  the  country,  seeing  with  their 
own  eyes,  and  intrusted  with  a  wide  discretion  to  act  to  the  best  of 
their  judgment,  the  work  of  improvement  marched  as  rapidly  as  the 
limited  amount  of  money  at  the  disposal  of  the  Irrigation  Service 
would  permit.  While  a  great  deal  was  left  to  the  initiative  of  the 
individual  inspectors,  and  the  methods  of  each  of  them  presented 
considerable  diversity,  there  was  still  a  general  harmony  of  purpose 
rijaBing  through  their  work." 

Nothing,  perhaps,  illustrates  more  forcibly  the  confidence 
the  natives  have  in  the  engineers  than  an  incident  quoted 
by  Sir  Alfred  Milnes  in  his  invaluable  study  of  modern 
Egypt.  He  had  asked  a  native  statesman,  who  was  bit- 
terly opposed  to  the  English  occupation,  what  Egypt  would 
do  without  the  engineers.  The  reply  was  to  the  effect 
that  the  sooner  England  retired  the  better,  b\ft  that  the 
engineers  would  certainly  not  be  allowed  to  go.  J 

The  engineer  in  the  remote  country  district  is,  indeed, 
not  only  an  indispensable  official,  but  may  be  regarded  as 
a  useful  educational  and  civilising  force.  "The  people 
recognise  in  him  the  great  benefactor  of  their  district,  and, 
with  a  childlike  simplicity,  they  turn  to  him  for  help  and 
counsel  -even  in  concerns  the  least  related  to  his  actual 
functions." 


74  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

The  following  amusing  anecdote  illustrates  this  attitude 
of  the  fellaheen  towards  these  officials. 

In  one  year  of  exceptionally  low  Nile,  a  certain  district 
was  threatened  with  a  total  failure  of  the  crops,  owing  to 
the  canal  being  too  low  to  irrigate  the  fields.  A  cry  of 
despair  arose  from  the  whole  populace,  who,  as  usual,  im- 
plored the  aid  of  one  of  the  English  inspectors  of  irrigation 
who  happened  to  be  on  the  spot.  This  official  promptly 
determined  to  throw  a  temporary  dam  across  the  canal. 
The  idea  was  a  bold  one.  The  time  was  short.  The  canal 
was  large,  and,  though  lower  than  usual,  it  was  still  carry- 
ing a  great  body  of  water  at  a  considerable  velocity.  Of 
course  no  preparations  had  been  made  for  a  work  the 
necessity  for  which  had  never  been  contemplated.  Labour, 
at  any  rate,  was  forthcoming  in  any  quantity,  for  the  peo- 
ple, who  saw  starvation  staring  them  in  the  face,  needed 
no  compulsion  to  join  gladly  in  any  enterprise  which 
afforded  them  even  the  remotest  chance  of  relief.  So  the 
inspector  hastily  got  together  the  best  material  within 
reach.  He  brought  Ms  bed  on  to  the  canal  bank,  and 
did  not  leave  the  scene  of  operations,  night  or  day,  till 
the  work  was  finished.  And  the  plan  succeeded.  To 
the  surprise  of  all,  the  dam  was  somehow  or  other  made 
strong  enough  to  resist  the  current.  The  water  was  raised 
to  the  required  level,  and  the  land  was  effectually  flooded. 
The  joy  and  the  gratitude  of  the  people  knew  no  bounds. 
It  was  decided  to  offer  thanksgivings  in  the  mosque  of  the 
chief  town  of  the  district,  and  the  event  was  considered  of 
such  general  importance  that  even  that  exalted  functionary 
the  Minister  of  Public  Works,  himself  made  a  special  point 
of  attending  the  ceremony. 

In  the  Department  of  Justice  and  Police — using  the  word 
"  justice  "  in  its  narrow  but  conventional  sense  as  meaning 
all  that  appertains  to  courts  of  law  —  less  progress  has  been 
made  towards  reform  than  in  other  State  departments. 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  T5 

And  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  whole  administrative 
field  of  Egypt,  in  no  department  is  the  cardinal  principle 
which  underlies  all  British  intervention,  —  viz.,  not  merely 
governing,  but  teaching  the  Egyptians  how  to  govern  them- 
selves, —  more  necessary  to  be  kept  in  view.  One  reason 
for  the  slow  development  of  law  and  justice  is,  that  this  is 
a  branch  of  government  which  has  been  less  under  the 
influence  of  the  English.  In  fact,  we  were  late  in  the  field. 
No  effective  interference  took  place  till  about  1889,  when 
Sir  John  Scott  was  appointed  with  the  title  of  Judicial 
Adviser  to  the  Khedive,  who  virtually  undertook  the  func- 
tions of  minister,  though  there  was  a  native  statesman  bear- 
ing that  title. 

There  is  not  one  judicial  system  in  Egypt,  but  four. 
There  is  the  old  Koranic  system,  worked  by  the  Mehken- 
nehs,  or  courts  of  the  religious  law,  which  are  now  mainly 
confined  to  dealing  with  the  personal  status  of  Mohamme- 
dans. There  is  the  system  of  the  mixed  courts,  which 
deals  with  civil  actions  between  foreigners  of  different 
nationalities,  or  between  foreigners  and  natives,  and,  in  a 
small  degree,  with  the  criminal  offences  of  foreigners. 
There  is  the  system,  or  no  system,  of  the  consular  courts, 
which  deals  with  the  great  body  of  foreign  crime.  Finally, 
there  is  the  system  of  the  new  native  courts,  which  deals 
with  civil  actions  between  natives,  or  crimes  committed  by 
them.  Of  all  these,  it  is  only  the  native  courts  which  the 
English  have  taken  in  hand,  and  that  not  till  within  the 
last  few  years. 

The  native  courts  are,  in  one  sense,  though  ranking  only 
as  courts  of  first  instance,  the  most  important  of  all  as 
affecting  the  greatest  number  of  people;  but  the  English 
were,  at  first,  chary  of  doing  more  than  giving  advice. 
The  original  personnel  of  the  native  court  was  very  unsatis- 
factory, and  jobbing  and  nepotism  was  rife.  Mr.  Scott 
entered  upon  the  delicate  work  of  reform  in  a  judicious 


76  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  moderate  spirit.  He  wisely  contented  himseK  with 
modifying  the  judicial  system  without  radically  altering 
the  procedure  and  machinery  of  the  law. 

By  a  series  of  important  changes  of  detail  Sir  John  has 
modified  the  judicial  system  which  he  found  existing,  and 
rendered  it  vastly  more  suitable  to  the  conditions  of  the 
country;  but  he  has  never  attempted  to  revolutionise  it. 
No  doubt,  if  he  had  the  work  to  do  de  novo,  he  would 
prefer  something  more  like  the  Indian  system,  which 
experience  has  proved  to  be  so  well  suited  to  the  wants 
of  a  backward  country,  where  most  of  the  litigants  are 
poor,  and  most  of  the  cases  simple.  He  recognised,  how- 
ever, that  the  Egyptian  codes  and  procedure,  such  as  he 
found  them,  were  the  only  ones  which  the  native  judicial 
body  knew  how  to  work,  or  to  which  the  people  were 
accustomed.  He  therefore  wisely  decided  not  radically 
to  alter  the  actual  administration  of  justice,  but  simply  to 
improve  it  in  the  points  where  it  was  most  imperfect. 

It  is  curious  that,  at  first,  the  chief  fault  in  the  admin- 
istration of  justice  by  these  lower  courts  was  the  dilatori- 
ness  of  the  proceedings.  Now,  according  to  the  last  report 
of  the  Judicial  Adviser  to  the  Khedive,  the  chief  defect  of 
these  courts  was  the  hasty  manner  in  which  the  actions  were 
tried,  and  the  old  charge  that  "  Justice  long  delayed  is  no 
justice,"  certainly  cannot  now  be  brought  against  the  native 
tribunals.  The  natural  result  of  this  tendency  to  haste 
on  the  part  of  the  judges,  who  must,  however,  be  given 
full  credit  for  the  zeal  in  which  they  set  their  faces  against 
arrears  of  cases,  is  to  give  an  unnecessary  amount  of  work 
to  the  courts  of  appeal.  Good  authorities  are,  however,  of 
opinion  that,  taken  collectively,  the  native  tribunals  give 
every  sign  of  working  admirably,  with  a  judicious  leaven  of 
European  judges. 

In  the  organisation  of  the  police  mistakes  have  avow- 
edly been  made  by  the  English  officers  responsible  for  the 


THE    MAKING   OF    EGYPT.  77 

reconstruction,  owing  mainly  to  a  lack  of  continuity  in 
the  policy  of  reconstruction  and  reorganisation.  The  first 
chief,  Gen.  Valentine  Baker,  who  was  sent  out  to  com- 
mand the  police  soon  after  the  English  occupation,  though 
an  admirable  cavalry  officer,  was  totally  imfitted  for  the 
office  of  inspector-general  of  police.  Besides,  he  started 
on  a  wrong  tack.  "  His  whole  management  of  the  police 
was  influenced,  from  the  first,  by  the  conviction  that 
they  would  sooner  or  later  be  converted  into  a  military 
reserve." 

After  General  Baker's  death,  Mr.  Clifford  Lloyd  tried 
his  hand  at  the  work  of  police  organisation.  Under  this 
energetic  reformer,  the  police  were  made  an  independent 
body,  and  free  from  the  control  of  the  mudirs  (governors 
of  provinces).  This  proved  a  short-sighted  policy,  and 
lessened  the  prestige  of  these  provincial  authorities,  on 
whom  the  whole  internal  administration  of  their  respec- 
tive provinces  depended.  Ultimately,  through  the  efforts 
of  Nubas  Pacha,  a  compromise  was  arrived  at,  which  is 
still  in  force. 

The  police  of  each  province,  as  matters  are  now  ar- 
ranged, are  under  the  authority  of  the  mudir ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  his  orders  must  be  given  to  them  through 
their  own  local  officers.  He  has  no  power  of  interference 
with  the  discipline  and  organisation  of  the  force,  nor  can 
he  make  use  of  it  except  for  the  legitimate  purposes  of 
maintaining  order  and  repressing  crime.  If  he  has  cause 
of  complaint  against  the  conduct  of  the  police,  his  remedy 
lies  in  an  appeal  to  the  ministry  of  the  interior,  which, 
through  the  inspector-general  at  headquarters,  deals  with 
the  case.  This  is  as  it  should  be ;  but,  of  course,  the 
success  of  the  system  depends  on  a  spirit  of  give  and 
take  on  both  sides,  and  on  friendly  relations  between  the 
mudirs  and  the  chiefs  of  the  police. 

In  the  Department  of  the  Interior  important  reforms 


78  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

in  the  maintenance  of  public  security,  in  addition  to  the 
police  force,  have  been  effected  since  the  establishment 
of  a  responsible  English  official,  who  bears  the  title  of 
Adviser  on  Internal  Affairs.  Mr.  J.  L.  Gorst,  appointed 
in  1894,  was  the  first  to  occupy  this  important  post ;  and 
he  is  still  the  virtual  head  of  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  though  a  native  statesman  is  the  titular  chief. 
The  principal  work  has  been  the  reorganisation  of  the  vil- 
lage watchmen  (ghaffirs),  who  serve  as  a  supplementary 
police  force  in  the  country  districts.  This  unwieldy  body 
was  much  reduced  in  numbers,  but  put  into  a  state  of 
efficiency,  and  placed  under  the  control  of  the  respective 
omdahs,  or  village  sheiks. 

These  omdahs  were  answerable  to  the  mamurs,  or  gov- 
ernors of  districts,  and  the  latter  were  under  the  control 
of  the  mudirs,  who,  in  turn,  were  responsible  to  the  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior.  Thus  a  regular  series  of  authorities 
was  effected  in  the  machinery  of  government,  by  which  the 
central  authority  in  Cairo  was  in  touch  with  the  fellahs  in 
the  remotest  district  of  the  Upper  Nile  Valley. 

The  above  is  an  epitome  of  the  development  and  results 
of  the  more  important  reforms  in  the  administration  of 
Egypt  under  British  influence;  but  without  wearying  my 
readers  with  a  catalogue  of  reforms  suggesting  a  diluted 
Blue  Book,  it  will  be  well  to  note  briefly  a  few  more  im- 
provements in  other  branches  of  the  public  services. 

In  the  matter  of  sanitation  and  sanitary  reform,  the 
attention  of  the  Egyptian  Government  has  only  of  late 
years  —  prompted,  doubtless,  by  the  serious  epidemics  of 
cholera  in  1883  and  1896  —  been  directed  to  the  pressing 
need  of  reform  in  matters  affecting  the  public  health  ;  and 
till  recently  the  Department  of  Public  Health  remained 
one  of  the  least  satisfactory  in  the  public  service.  This 
is  largely  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  paucity  of  the  funds  avail- 
able for  sanitary  reform  on  a  large  scale.    The  department 


THE    MAKING   OF    EGYPT.  79 

was,  in  short,  for  many  years  after  its  establishment  in 
1885,  shelved  and  starved.  This  is  virtually  admitted  by 
Lord  Cromer  in  his  report  for  1897  : 

"  It  is,  however,  the  misfortune  that  the  sums  of  money  required 
to  execute  the  very  necessary  reforms  proposed  by  Rogers  Pacha, 
the  head  of  the  Health  Department,  are  large.  During  the  fourteen 
years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  British  occupation  of  the  coun- 
try commenced,  Egyptian  finance  has  passed  through  several  dis- 
tinct phases.  During  the  first  period,  which  lasted  from  1882  to 
the  close  of  1886,  there  could  be  no  question  either  of  fiscal  reform, 
or  of  increasing  expenditure  save  on  such  subjects  as  irrigation, 
which  were  distinctly  and  directly  remunerative.  The  aggregate 
deficits  of  these  years  amounted  to  £2,751,000.  The  whole  atten- 
tion of  the  Government  was,  during  this  period,  directed  to  the 
maintenance  of  financial  equilibrium.  When,  at  last,  a  surplus  was 
obtained,  fiscal  relief  was,  very  wisely  in  my  opinion,  allowed  to 
take  precedence  of  increased  expenditure,  even  on  the  most  neces- 
sary objects.  During  the  next  period,  which  may  be  said  to  have 
lasted  till  1894,  large  reductions  were  made  in  indirect  taxation,  and 
direct  taxes  to  the  extent  of  about  £1,000,000  were  remitted. 

"It  is  only  since  1894  that  the  Egyptian  Government  has  been 
able  to  turn  its  attention  seriously  to  those  numerous  reforms  which 
involve  increased  expenditure  on  any  considerable  scale.  Amongst 
the  objects  which  most  nearly  concern  the  general  welfare  of  Egypt, 
it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  reconquest  of  some  portion,  at  all 
events,  of  the  Soudan,  takes  a  very  high  place.  It  is  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  object  that  the  attention  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment must,  for  the  time  being,  be  mainly  directed. 

"More  than  this,  the  development  of  the  system  of  irrigation 
should  not  be  long  delayed,  more  especially  as  the  returns  to  be 
obtained  from  money  spent  on  irrigation  will  certainly  in  the  end 
provide  funds  for  expenditure  in  other  directions. 

"No  government,  and  certainly  not  the  semi-internationalised 
government  of  Egypt,  can  afford  to  embark  at  once  and  at  the 
same  moment  in  a  number  of  expensive  and  difl&cult  operations. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  the  day  of  the  Egyptian  sanitary  reformer  will 
come ;  but  under  the  circumstances  to  which  I  alluded  above,  I  fear, 
though  I  say  it  with  regret,  that  some  little  while  must  yet  elapse 
before  the  question  of  improved  sanitation  in  Egypt  can  be  taken 
seriously  in  hand." 


80  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

A  great  deal  must  be  allowed  for  the  ingrained  hor- 
ribly unsanitary  habits  of  the  natives.  Though  person- 
ally clean  and  not  averse  to  the  use  of  water,  —  in  fact, 
their  religion  enjoins  frequent  and  regular  ablution,  —  the 
huts  of  the  fellaheen  are  indescribably  filthy.  The  canals, 
which  in  the  remote  districts  are  the  only  source  of  water, 
are  subject  to  every  kind  of  pollution.  Near  most  villages 
there  are  hirkas,  or  stagnant  ponds,  which  are  as  malari- 
ous as  they  are  malodorous.  Even  in  the  principal  cities 
there  is  absolutely  no  system  of  drainage.  In  the  case  of 
Cairo,  as  will  be  shown  later,  this  reproach  will,  however, 
soon  be  removed.  In  short,  the  observant  traveller  only 
wonders  that  the  awful  cholera  epidemic  of  last  year  is  not 
repeated  annually.  Then,  besides,  there  are  special  diffi- 
culties in  addition  to  the  ignorance  and  apathy  and  unsani- 
tary customs  of  the  people,  which  the  sanitary  reformer  has 
to  confront.  These  are  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  Mos- 
lems. The  mosques  are  the  principal  offenders  against 
the  laws  of  health,  and  the  latrines  attached  to  every  one 
of  these  buildings  are  often  centres  of  infection.  Injudi- 
cious interference  might  easily  excite  a  fanatical  oppo- 
sition, which  would  stand  seriously  in  the  way  of  all 
sanitary  reform.  However,  the  judicious  handling  of  this 
sanitary  work  by  Rogers  Pacha  resulted  in  placing,  in  one 
year  (1896),  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  mosques  in  a 
proper  sanitary  condition. 

In  connection  with  this  subject  some  reference  should 
be  made  to  the  cholera  epidemic  of  last  year,  already 
referred  to.  The  following  extracts  from  Rogers  Pacha's 
Report  are  instructive : 

"  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  disease  was  originally  intro- 
duced, in  August  or  September,  1895,  by  pilgrims  returning  from 
Mecca.  It  was  at  first  limited  to  sporadic  cases  which  did  not 
attract  attention.  By  the  first  of  February  the  disease  was  com- 
pletely stamped  out  in  the  provinces. 


THE    MAKING   OF   EGYPT.  81 

"  Unfortunately,  Alexandria  had  become  infected  on  the  28th  of 
December.  In  the  month  of  January,  1896,  twenty-one  cases,  and 
in  February  forty-eight  cases,  occurred  in  that  town.  In  April  the 
number  of  cases  once  more  rose  to  fifty,  and  in  May  the  disease 
assumed  an  epidemic  form  in  the  town.  Cases  imported  from  Alex- 
andria soon  began  to  occur  all  over  the  country,  and  by  the  middle 
of  May  it  was  evident  that  a  general  infection  was  imminent. 

«  From  the  1st  of  May  to  the  22d  of  October,  703  villages  were 
infected.  In  all  these  villages  inspection  was  carried  out,  generally, 
by  one  of  the  four  very  capable  English  inspectors  who  were  avail- 
able for  provincial  work.  In  each  village  a  cholera  hospital  was 
established. 

"  By  the  end  of  October  the  disease  had  practically  disappeared. 
During  the  winter  epidemic,  1,018  deaths  were  recorded.  From  the 
1st  of  April  to  the  31st  of  October  the  number  of  deaths  was 
17,087,  making  a  total  of  18,105  deaths  out  of  21,693  cases  notified 
or  detected. 

"  The  reduced  mortality  in  1895-6,  as  compared  to  1883,  is  due  to 
two  causes ;  namely,  (1)  to  the  fact  that  in  the  interval  of  thirteen 
years  a  great  advance  has  been  made  in  medical  science,  with  the 
result  that  the  proper  methods  for  arresting  the  propagation  of 
cholera  are  now  more  fully  understood  than  was  formerly  the  case  ; 
(2)  to  the  fact  that  the  Medical  and  Sanitary  Departments  of  the 
Egyptian  Government  are  now  far  better  organised  than  was  the 
case  in  1883." 

The  scheme  for  a  thorough  system  of  drainage  for  Cairo 
shows  that  the  revival  of  interest  in  sanitation  is  begin- 
ning to  take  a  practical  form. 

"  This  is  a  tremendous  undertaking,  estimated  to  cost  at  least 
£500,000.  The  necessity  has  long  been  recognised,  but  it  has  been 
put  off  from  year  to  year,  owing  to  want  of  money,  —  not  so  much 
absolute  want  of  money,  as  want  of  power  to  apply  money  that  actu- 
ally existed  to  the  desired  object,  owing  to  the  usual  and  ten-times 
explained  necessity  of  obtaining  the  consent  of  the  Powers,  or,  more 
properly,  the  consent  of  France,  for  none  of  the  others  made  any 
difficulty.  France  was  finally  appeased  last  year  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  International  Commission  to  examine  the  various  com- 
peting schemes.  This  Commission,  composed  of  an  Englishman, 
a  Frenchman,  and  a  German,  sat  last  winter,  and  ended  by  propos- 
ing a  scheme  of  its  own,  for  which  preliminary  investigations  are  at 


82  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

present  being  made.  So  in  two  or  three  years  we  may  hope  to  see 
Cairo  drained,  in  which  case  that  city,  or  at  any  rate  the  European 
quarter  of  it,  will  very  likely  be  one  of  the  healthiest  places  of 
residence  in  the  world.'* 

It  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  this  important  sani- 
tary reform  will  have  some  effect  in  reducing  the  deplor- 
able high  death-rate  of  Cairo,  —  forty-six  per  one  thousand, 
which  is  actually  double  that  of  many  European  capi- 
tals; the  average  death-rate  of  Paris  being  twenty-three, 
and  London  nineteen,  per  one  thousand.  It  must,  how- 
ever, be  remembered  that  this  abnormally  heavy  bill  of 
mortality  is  to  some  extent  factitious.  For  Cairo  is  re- 
garded by  the  Egyptians  in  the  light  of  a  sacred  city,  and 
they  are  accustomed  to  crowd  into  it  from  the  villages  of 
the  Delta,  when  they  feel  their  end  approaching,  simply 
to  die  in  Cairo. 

Till  the  last  few  years,  the  educational  system  seemed 
little  affected  by  the  spirit  of  reform  which  was  influencing 
Egypt  and  its  national  institutions.  No  department  has 
borne  richer  fruit  of  late.  But  though  there  has  lately 
been  a  remarkable  increase  in  the  number  of  schools  and 
scholars,  only  a  small  minority  of  the  latter  belong  to  the 
Mohammedan  religion. 

Previous  to  1884,  the  few  Government  schools  were  also 
boycotted  by  parents  of  the  dominant  faith, 'the  religious 
influence  of  the  Ulemas,  who  controlled  the  El-Azhar 
University  and  the  innumerable  schools  attached  to  the 
mosques,  being  too  strong  to  be  combated.  The  famous 
El-Azhar  University  —  "a  petrified  university,  which  rests 
like  a  blight  upon  the  religious  and  intellectual  life  of 
the  country  "  —  has  moulded  all  the  religious  training  in 
Egypt. 

The  better  class  of  the  Mohammedans  are  now,  however, 
beginning  to  tolerate  the  Government  foundations ;  and 
there  are  now  nearly  eight  thousand  scholars  in  the  pri- 


THE    MAKING    OF    EGYPT.  83 

mary  schools,  while  there  are  about  fifteen  hundred  in  the 
secondary  schools  and  the  eight  higher  professional  schools 
or  technical  colleges  (Law,  Military,  Medicine,  Engineering, 
Agriculture,  etc.). 

Hitherto,  the  educational  vote  has  made  a  poor  show  in 
the  Egyptian  budget,  and  some  critics  maintain  that  edu- 
cation is  the  "  Cinderella "  among  the  Egyptian  depart- 
ments of  state.  This,  no  doubt,  will  be  rectified  in  future 
budgets.     It  must  of  course  be  remembered  that  — 

"  People  must  live  before  they  can  be  taught.  Famine  is  worse 
than  ignorance.  What  the  Egyptian  Government  had  to  fight  for, 
six  or  seven  years  ago,  was  the  very  existence  of  the  people.  Essen- 
tial as  education  is,  the  provision  of  education  is  not  such  a  primary 
duty  of  government  as  the  defence  of  personal  property,  the  mainte- 
nance of  justice,  or,  in  a  country  like  Egypt  where  human  life 
depends  upon  public  works,  the  careful  preservation  of  these  works 
upon  which  life  depends.  And,  in  the  next  place,  it  would  have 
been  no  use  simply  to  augment  the  budget  of  the  Education  Depart- 
ment, so  long  as  the  schools  were  being  conducted  on  unintelligent 
methods." 

To  come  to  a  higher  form  of  public  education,  —  the  art 
of  government,  —  it  cannot  be  said  that  much  progress  has 
been  made  in  developing  representative  institutions  in  the 
machinery  of  government.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  Leg- 
islative Council,  but  its  powers  are  inconsiderable,  being 
mainly  confined  to  proposing  amendments  to  proposed  laws 
affecting  the  administration.  As  the  Council  cannot  initiate 
legislation,  and  as  the  Ministry  need  not  accept  the  amend- 
ments, the  Legislative  Councils  are  not  of  great  importance 
in  the  body  politic. 

Then  there  is  the  General  Assembly,  —  which  is  simply 
the  Council,  enlarged  by  a  popular  element.  This  has  one 
important  function,  for  no  new  taxes  can  be  imposed  with- 
out its  consent.  As,  however,  this  assembly  only  meets 
once  every  two  years,  it  cannot  play  a  very  considerable 
part  in  Egyptian  politics. 


84  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  time,  in  fact,  has  not  yet  come  for  applying  the  prin- 
ciple of  representative  government,  in  any  great  degree,  to 
the  national  affairs  of  Egypt.  It  would  be  sounder  policy 
to  begin  by  introducing  it  into  the  management  of  local 
business,  and  even  then  tentatively  and  with  caution. 

The  only  local  representative  institution  having  adminis- 
trative powers,  which  at  present  exists,  is  the  municipality 
of  Alexandria.  That  city,  by  virtue  of  its  large  European 
population,  has  probably  more  of  the  elements  requisite  for 
the  success  of  local  self-government  than  any  other  town 
in  Egypt.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mixture  of  Europeans 
and  natives  in  this  municipality  gives  rise  to  certain  special 
difficulties. 

The  attitude  of  England  in  this  policy  of  Egyptian  inter- 
vention, since  the  Arabi  revolt,  is  simple  and  comprehensive. 
It  was  natural  that  the  British  Government  should  suppose 
that  their  task,  when  France,  in  1882,  threw  all  responsibil- 
ity for  Egypt  on  their  hands,  was  a  simple  one ;  namely, 
to  crush  a  military  rising.  Only  actual  experience  taught 
England  that  the  rebellion  was  a  very  small  matter,  and 
that  the  real  difficulty  lay  in  the  utter  rottenness  of  the 
whole  fabric  of  government.  Naturally,  then,  the  pledges 
England  made,  being  based  on  a  total  misapprehension, 
were  impossible  of  fulfilment.  But  to  the  spirit  of  these 
pledges  England  has  been  faithful.  It  is  indisputable  that 
England  has  derived  no  pecuniary  or  other  benefit  from 
her  occupation  of  Egypt.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  among  the 
foreign  employees  in  the  Egyptian  civil  service  there  are 
nearly  twice  as  many  of  French  or  Italian  nationality  as  of 
English.  In  1895,  for  instance,  there  were  348  Italians, 
326  French,  and  174  English  in  the  Khedive's  service. 

No  nation  is  able  to  say  that  any  legitimate  right  or 
privilege  which  it  once  possessed  in  Egypt  has  been  in- 
fringed by  any  action  of  England.  Such  right  or  priv- 
ilege remains  absolutely  untouched,  even  where  it  would  be 


THE    MAKING   OF    EGYPT.  85 

just  and  reasonable  that  it  should  be  modified.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  what  European  people,  having  any  interests  in 
Egypt,  has  not  benefited  by  the  fact  that  that  country  has 
been  preserved  from  disorder  and  restored  to  prosperity  ? 
That  this  is  the  true  view  of  the  character  of  British  policy 
is  shown  by  the  willing  acquiescence,  if  not  the  unspoken 
approval,  of  the  majority  of  civilised  nations. 

As  for  the  attitude  of  the  French  Government,  it  is  nat- 
ural enough  that  France  should  feel  some  resentment  at 
England  holding  the  position  in  Egypt,  among  all  European 
nations,  that  she  herself  once  held,  and  foolishly  resigned 
when,  in  1882,  she  shirked  at  the  last  moment,  and  left 
England  to  "  face  the  music  "  alone.  Then  in  1887,  at  the 
time  of  the  Constantinople  Conference,  it  was  France  who 
put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  withdrawal  of  England.  In 
short,  logically,  France  is  mainly  answerable  for  the  British 
continued  occupation  in  Egypt.  But  yet  it  must  be  allowed 
that  France  has  many  reasons  for  being  hurt  and  disap- 
pointed, considering  the  enormous  value  of  her  services  to 
Egypt  in  the  past. 

"  It  was  France  who  supported  Egypt  in  her  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence from  Turkey,  when  all  the  other  Powers  were  against  her, 
and  when  by  this  opposition  they  prevented  that  independence  from 
becoming  complete ;  it  was  to  France  that  Mehemet  Ah  turned  for 
aid  in  his  attempt  to  civilise  Egypt,  as  he  understood  the  meaning 
of  civilisation.  For  something  like  half  a  century,  French  lawyers, 
French  engineers,  French  men  of  learning,  were  engaged  in  doing 
their  best — often  under  most  discouraging  circumstances — to  deluge 
Egypt  with  the  fruits  of  European  culture. 

"  In  short.  Frenchmen  may  claim  to  have  been  the  pioneers  of 
European  influence.  Whatever  Egypt  borrowed  from  Europe, 
whether  in  the  material  or  intellectual  sphere,  came  to  her  first 
through  French  channels.  Her  upper  classes,  if  educated  at  all, 
were  educated  by  Frenchmen  in  French  ideas.  French  even  became 
an  official  language,  side  by  side  with  Arabic.  To  this  day,  the 
English  in  the  Egyptian  service  write  official  letters  to  one  another 
in  halting  French." 


86  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Then  there  is  the  Canal.  This  stupendous  work  is  of 
course  purely  French  in  conception  and  execution,  and  was 
(see  a  later  chapter)  undertaken  in  face  of  the  continued 
and  bitter  hostility  of  England.  There  is,  then,  some 
excuse  for  France  making  all  the  capital  she  can  out  of  the 
unfortunate  engagements,  or  "  pledges,"  of  England,  pub- 
lished and  reiterated  urhi  et  orhi,  in  1883  and  1887. 

It  is  necessary,  however,  to  look  at  the  other  side  of  the 
question.  France  has,  no  doubt,  been  of  great  service  to 
this  erstwhile  "  distressful  country ; "  but  her  services  are 
counterbalanced  by  her  tendency  to  exploit  and  make 
money  out  of  Egypt,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  cardinal 
principle  of  her  Egyptian  policy,  from  the  death  of  Mehemet 
Ali  to  1882. 

"  In  the  days  prior  to  the  establishment  of  the  Mixed  Tribunals,  — 
which  France  resisted  with  all  her  might,  —  French  adventurers 
exploited  Egypt  in  the  most  merciless  fashion,  and  they  frequently 
enjoyed  the  support  of  French  diplomacy  in  their  nefarious  game. 
No  Great  Power  has  clung  with  such  tenacity  as  France  to  all  the 
advantages,  however  indefensible  and  galling,  bestowed  on  its  sub- 
jects by  the  Capitulations.  She  has  shown  no  consideration  for  the 
weakness  of  Egypt.  She  has  never  hesitated  to  use  her  immense 
superiority  of  power  to  push  the  interests  of  French  traders,  French 
contractors,  and  French  financiers.  In  the  years  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  Arabist  revolution,  when  England  and  France  were 
acting  in  concert  in  the  Egyptian  affairs,  it  was  France  who  was  for 
getting  the  last  pound  of  flesh  out  of  the  Egyptian  debtor.  It  was 
England  who  was  in  favour  of  showing  some  consideration  for  the 
people  of  Egypt,  and  not  of  treating  the  question  purely  as  one  of 
pounds,  shillings,  and  pence." 

The  withdrawal  of  England  on  the  understanding  that 
France  should  never  occupy  the  country  —  if  such  a  pledge 
could  be  enforced,  for  circumstances  might  easily  arise  in 
which  France  would  be  wrong  to  keep  this  pledge  —  has 
been  suggested  as  one  way  out  of  the  Egyptian  difficulty. 
A  settlement  of  this  vexed  international  question  by  means 


THE    MAKING    OF   EGYPT.  87 

of  such  a  self-denying  ordinance  on  the  part  of  France  and 
England  is  not  likely  to  be  advantageous,  or  even  anything 
but  a  temporary  shelving  of  the  difficulty. 

"  Can  any  man,"  says  an  old  resident,  who  has  held  high  office  in 
the  Egyptian  civil  service,  and  had  peculiar  opportunities  for  observ- 
ing and  judging  impartially  the  results  of  English  influence  in 
Egypt,  "  knowing  the  social  and  political  condition  of  the  country, 
maintain  with  confidence  that  if  Egypt  were  left  to  herself  to-mor- 
row favouritism  and  corruption  would  not  once  more  raise  their  heads ; 
that  justice  would  not  once  more  be  venal ;  that  the  administration 
would  not  once  more  gradually  fall  back  into  disorder ;  and  that,  as 
a  consequence  of  such  disorder,  financial  equilibrium  would  not  again 
be  jeopardised  ?  And  then  should  we  not  have  the  old  story :  the 
embarrassment  of  the  treasury,  causing  the  impoverishment  of  the 
people,  —  such  impoverishment  leading  to  discontent  and  agitation ; 
that  agitation  directed  not  only  against  the  Government,  but,  under 
the  inspiration  of  mischief-making  fanatics,  against  all  progressive 
elements  of  society,  —  another  Arabi,  another  revolution  ?  And  if,  in 
prospect  of  a  fresh  cataclysm  threatening  every  European  interest, 
after  all  diplomatic  means  had  been  exhausted  France  were  to 
declare  that  she  could  stand  it  no  longer ;  if  she  were  to  take  the 
line  which  we  took  in  1882,  —  what  moral  right  should  we  have  to 
say  her  nay  ?     Could  we  fight  or  restrain  her  from  interfering  ?  " 

The  withdrawal,  however,  of  Great  Britain,  if  it  is  not  to 
end  in  disaster,  can  only  be  a  gradual  process.  An  intan- 
gible influence  made  up  of  many  elements,  like  that  of  Eng- 
land in  Egypt,  cannot  be  withdrawn  any  more  than  it  can 
be  created  at  a  certain  hour  or  by  a  certain  act. 

One  of  the  most  absurd  suggestions  for  the  cutting  of 
this  Gordian  knot  is  neutralisation.  In  the  case  of  small 
but  well-governed  and  highly  civilised  States,  such  as  Bel- 
gium and  Switzerland,  neutralisation  and  a  strict  principle 
of  non-intervention  by  the  Great  Powers  is  all  very  well ; 
it  would,  however,  be  difficult  to  conceive  anything  more 
unlike  than  the  internal  condition  of  those  well-governed 
countries  and  that  of  Egypt.  A  neutral  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  Powers  would  scarcely  be  likely  to  insure  the  inter- 


88  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

nal  good  government  and  the  peace  of  Egypt.  It  would 
be  simply  evading  the  main  object  of  all  foreign  interfer- 
ence, whether  by  the  six  Powers,  or  England  and  France 
jointly,  or  by  England  alone.  However,  Great  Britain  is 
hardly  likely  to  adopt  so  weak  and  cowardly  a  policy, 
which  would  "  simply  mean  that,  from  unwillingness  to 
allow  any  one  of  their  number  to  do  the  work  in  which  all 
are  interested,  the  Powers  should  determine  that  that  work 
must  be  left  undone."  Such,  indeed,  stripped  of  all  diplo- 
matic highfalutin,  is  the  meaning  of  the  specious  word 
"  neutralisation "  applied  to  Egypt.  Besides,  how  would 
the  various  foreign  interests,  which  undoubtedly  exist  in 
Egypt,  be  safeguarded  if  Egypt  was  neutralised  ? 

Another  suggestion  by  political  theorists  is  that  Egypt's 
natural  guardian  the  Porte,  as  its  suzerain,  should  be  the 
protector  of  Egypt,  which  should  be  neutral  as  regards  all 
other  European  powers.  Turkey,  in  short,  would  be  the 
policeman  of  Egypt,  and  be  responsible  for  order  and  firm 
internal  government.  There  is  something  almost  ludicrous 
in  this  proposal.  "  The  idea  of  intrusting  Turkey  with  the 
maintenance  of  reforms  the  chief  aim  of  which  has  been 
to  differentiate  Egypt  from  Turkish  administration,  is  like 
substituting  the  wolf  for  the  sheep-dog  as  the  guardian  of 
the  flock." 

Then  there  are  many  who  advocate  what  they  are  pleased 
to  call  "  internationalisation."  This  is  going  backwards 
with  a  vengeance.  In  other  words,  Egypt  would  be  "put 
into  commission,"  and  fettered  by  the  Great  Powers  in  her 
administrative  and  internal  policy,  as  she  is  already  in  her 
financial  measures.  For  Egypt  has  indeed  suffered  already 
from  a  certain  amount  of  internationalism.  It  is  the  bond- 
holders who  have  the  power  of  the  purse,  and  the  raison 
d^Stre  of  the  sanction  of  the  Powers  in  measures  affecting 
the  finances  is  the  fact  that  they  represent  the  creditors 
of  Egypt.     Then,  too,  the  veto  of  the  Powers  which  already 


THE   MAKING   OF    EGYPT.  89 

exists  on  the  legislative  authority  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment, might  be  supposed  to  give  sufficient  European  in- 
fluence. When  the  political  chaos  of  the  last  years  of 
Ismail,  when  Egypt  was  tied  hand  and  foot  by  Europe,  — 
each  country  having  a  right  to  a  finger  in  the  pie,  and  each 
disdaining  responsibility,  —  gave  way  to  the  dual  control, 
it  was  a  great  step  in  advance,  and  results  have  shown  that 
the  single  control  has  benefited  Egypt  still  more.  It 
might  naturally  be  supposed,  then,  by  all  unbiassed  and 
disinterested  observers, — by  all,  in  short,  who  are  not  con- 
firmed Anglophobists,  —  that  the  retention  of  the  guardian- 
ship by  England,  so  long  as  any  foreign  intervention  is 
necessary,  is  the  one  sensible  solution  of  the  Egyptian 
question.^ 

1  For  most  of  the  facts  and  a  great  deal  of  the  information  in  this  chapter,  I 
have  laid  under  contribution  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  invaluable  study  of  contempo- 
rary Egypt,  entitled  ♦•  England  in  Egypt." 


CHAPTER  V.i 

ALEXANDRIA   AND   THE   NILE   DELTA. 

THE  traveller,  reaching  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs  by 
the  direct  sea-route  viS,  Alexandria,  must  be  prepared 
for  a  certain  sense  of  disappointment  when  the  bleak  and 
barren  shores  of  the  Nile  Delta  are  first  sighted.  The 
monotonous  ridges  of  desolate  sand-hills,  varied  by  equally 
unattractive  lagoons,  are  a  melancholy  contrast  to  the  beau- 
tiful scenery  of  the  North  African  littoral  farther  vrest, 
which  delighted  his  eyes  a  few  days  before,  as  the  vessel 
skirted  the  Algerian  and  Tunisian  coasts.  If  the  expect- 
ant traveller  is  so  disillusioned  by  his  first  glimpse  of 
Egypt  from  the  sea,  still  keener  is  his  disappointment 
when  the  ship  enters  the  harbour.  But  for  an  occasional 
palm-tree  or  minaret  standing  out  among  the  mass  of  shops 
and  warehouses  to  give  a  faint  suggestion  of  Oriental  at- 
mosphere, this  bustling  and  painfully  modern-looking  city 
might  be  mistaken  for  some  flourishing  French  seaport, 
say  a  Marseilles  or  a  Havre,  plumped  down  on  the  Egyp- 
tian plain.  It  is  difficult  to  realise  that  this  is  the  city 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  metropolis  of  Egypt  under 
the  Ptolemies. 

Alexandria,  though  a  much  modernised  and  hybrid  sort 
of  city,  is  not  without  interest.  It  has,  no  doubt,  been 
rather  neglected  by  writers  of  Egyptian  travel,  and,  conse- 
quently, ignored  by  tourists,  who  do  not  as  a  rule  strike 

1  This  chapter  (and  a  portion  of  the  following  one)  is  reprinted  from  an 
article  contributed  to  the  ••  Picturesque  Mediterranean,"  by  kind  permission  of 
the  publishers,  Cassell  «&  Company,  Limited,  London. 

90 


ALEXANDRIA  AND   THE    NILE    DELTA.  91 

out  a  line  for  themselves.  It  has  been  regarded  too  much 
as  the  most  convenient  landing-place  for  Cairo,  and  visitors 
usually  devote  but  a  few  hours  for  a  hasty  inspection  of  its 
curiosities  before  rushing  off  by  express-train  to  the  City 
of  the  Caliphs. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  compare  Alexandria, 
essentially  the  commercial  capital  of  Egypt,  in  point  of 
artistic  or  historic  interest  with  Cairo ;  though,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  capital  is  a  modern  city  in  comparison  with  the 
Alexandria  of  Alexander,  while  Alexandria  itself  is  but  of 
mushroom  growth  contrasted  with  Heliopolis,  Thebes, 
Memphis,  or  other  dead  cities  of  the  Nile  Valley  of  which 
traces  still  remain.  It  has  often  been  remarked  that  the 
Ptolemaic  capital  has  bequeathed  nothing  but  its  ruins  and 
its  name  to  the  Alexandria  of  to-day.  Even  these  ruins 
are  deplorably  scanty,  and  many  of  the  sites  are  purely 
conjectural.  Few  vestiges  remain  of  the  architectural 
splendours  of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty.  Where  are  now  the 
four  thousand  palaces  of  which  the  conquering  general 
Amru  boasted  to  his  master,  the  Caliph  Omar  ?  What  now 
remains  of  the  magnificent  Temple  of  Serapis  towering 
over  the  city  on  its  platform  of  one  hundred  steps  ?  But 
though  there  are  scarcely  any  traces  of  the  glories  of 
ancient  Alexandria,  the  traditions  of  the  golden  age  of 
the  Egyptian  Renaissance  cannot  be  altogether  forgotten 
by  the  classical  student;  and  to  the  thoughtful  traveller 
imbued  with  the  genius  loci,  this  city  of  memories  is  not 
without  a  certain  charm.  Here  Saint  Mark  preached  the 
gospel  and  suffered  martjn-dom,  and  here  Athanasius  in 
warlike  controversy  did  battle  with  the  Arian  heresies. 
Here,  in  this  centre  of  Greek  culture,  were  for  many  cen- 
turies collected  the  greatest  intellects  of  the  age.  Here 
Cleopatra,  vainqueur  des  vainqueurs  du  monde,  held  An- 
tony a  willing  captive  while  Octavius  was  preparing  his 
legions  to  crush  him.     Here  Amru  conquered,  and  here 


92  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Abercrombie  fell.  Even  those  whose  tastes  do  not  incline 
them  to  historical  or  theological  researches  are  familiar, 
thanks  to  Kingsley's  immortal  romance,  with  the  story  of 
the  noble-minded  Hypatia  and  the  crafty  and  unscrupulous 
Cyril,  and  can  give  rein  to  their  imagination  by  verifying 
the  site  of  the  museum  where  she  lectured,  and  of  the 
Caesareum  where  she  fell  a  victim  to  the  atrocious  zeal  of 
Peter  the  Reader  and  his  rabble  of  fanatical  monks. 

Just  as  Alexandria  has  been  ignored  by  the  Egyptian 
tourist,  so  has  it  been  persistently  neglected  by  antiquaries 
and  Egyptologists,  and  no  systematic  excavation  on  the 
sites  of  ancient  buildings  has  been  undertaken.  It  is  true 
that  of  recent  years  some  attempt  has  been  made  by  the 
Egyptian  Exploration  Fund  to  discover  some  of  the  archi- 
tectural spoils  of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty  buried  beneath  the 
accumulation  of  rubbish  of  centuries;  but  the  splendid 
opportunity  for  the  excavation  and  exploration  of  the 
conjectural  sites  of  the  Serapeum,  Caesareum,  and  other 
famous  monuments,  afforded  in  1882,  when  a  great  portion 
of  the  city  lay  in  ruins  after  the  bombardment,  was  al- 
lowed to  pass  by  this  learned  society.  In  1895  Mr. 
Hogarth  carried  out  a  series  of  experimental  borings,  but 
the  results  were  not  encouraging,  as  water  was  found  under 
the  twenty  to  thirty  feet  of  the  deposit  of  rubbish,  and 
only  a  few  poor  specimens  of  Roman  and  Byzantine  archi- 
tecture rewarded  the  trouble  of  the  explorer.  Mr.  Hogarth 
explains  the  remarkable  disappearance  of  the  many  palaces 
and  temples,  which  studded  the  city  during  the  age  of  the 
Ptolemies,  by  the  subsidence  of  the  soil  and  the  encroach- 
ment of  the  sea.  Some  authorities,  among  them  Professor 
Mahaffy,  do  not,  however,  consider  that  any  definite  con- 
clusions should  be  drawn  from  this  partial  and  superficial 
probing  of  the  soil.  Very  possibly  Mr.  Hogarth  was  unfor- 
tunate in  tapping  the  low-lying  parts  of  the  city,  and  it 
would  be  advisable  that  future  excavations  should  be  car- 


ALEXANDRIA   AND    THE    NILE    DELTA.  93 

ried  on  in  the  elevated  ground  near  Pompey's  Pillar,  which 
most  antiquaries  agree  in  regarding  as  the  site  of  the  Sera- 
peum.  But  in  a  crowded  city  like  Alexandria  all  scientific 
excavation  is  particularly  costly,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of 
disposing  of  the  excavated  soil. 

The  peculiar  shape  of  the  city,  built  partly  on  the  Pharos 
island  and  peninsula,  and  partly  on  the  mainland,  is  due, 
according  to  the  ancient  chroniclers,  to  a  patriotic  whim  of 
the  founder,  who  planned  the  city  in  the  form  of  a  chlamys, 
the  short  cloak  or  tunic  worn  by  the  Macedonian  soldiers. 
The  modern  city,  though  it  has  pushed  its  boundaries  a 
good  way  to  the  east  and  west,  still  preserves  this  curious 
outline,  albeit,  to  a  non-classical  mind,  it  rather  suggests  a 
starfish.  Various  legends  are  extant  to  account  for  the 
choice  of  this  particular  spot  for  a  Mediterranean  port. 
According  to  the  popular  version,  a  venerable  seer  ap- 
peared to  the  Great  Conqueror  in  a  dream,  and  recited 
those  verses  in  the  Odyssey  ^  describing  the  one  sheltered 
haven  on  the  Egyptian  coast.  Acting  on  this  supernatural 
hint,  Alexander  decided  to  build  his  city  on  this  part  of 
the  coast,  where  the  Pharos  isle  acted  as  a  natural  break- 
water, and  where  a  small  Greek  fishing-settlement  called 
Rhacotis  was  already  established.  It  is,  however,  hardly 
necessary  to  fall  back  on  a  mythical  legend  to  account  for 
the  selection  of  this  site.  The  two  great  aims  of  Alexan- 
der were  the  creation  of  a  centre  for  trade  and  the  devel- 
opment of  commerce,  and  the  fusion  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  nations.  To  attain  these  objects  it  was  necessary 
to  build  a  seaport  near  the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  —  the  great 
highway  of  Egypt.  A  site  west  of  the  Nile  mouths  was 
probably  chosen  because  of  the  eastward  set  of  the  tide, 
as  the  alluvial  soil  brought  down  by  the  Nile*would  soon 
choke  a  harbour  excavated  east  of  the  river,  as  had  already 

i"Acertain  island  called  Pharos,  that  with  the  high-waved  sea  is  washed, 
just  against  Egypt,"  etc. 


94  THE    CITY   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

happened  at  Pelusium.  It  is  this  alluvial  wash  which  has 
also  rendered  the  harbours  of  Rosetta  and  Damietta  almost 
useless  for  vessels  of  any  draught,  and  at  Port  Said  the 
accumulation  of  sand  necessitates  continuous  dredging  in 
order  to  keep  clear  the  entrance  of  the  Suez  Canal. 
"^^  A  well-known  writer  on  Egypt  has  truly  observed  that 
there  are  three  Egypts  to  interest  the  traveller,  —  the  Egypt 
of  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Bible,  the  Egypt  of  the  Caliphates 
and  the  "  Arabian  Nights,"  and  the  Egypt  of  European 
commerce  and  enterprise.  To  which  he  might  have  added, 
the  Egypt  of  the  Ptolemiei  and  the  RojoaaaJEmpire.  It  is 
to  this  last  stage  of  civilisation  that  the  fine  harbour  of 
Alexandria  bears  witness.  Not  only  is  it  of  interest  to  the 
engineer  and  the  man  of  science,  but  it  is  also  of  great 
historic  importance.  It  serves  as  a  link  between  ancient 
and  modern  civilisation.  The  port  is  Alexander's  best 
monument,  —  ''si  quceris  monumentum,  circumspice.^^  But 
,^  for  this,  Alexandria  might  now  be  a  little  fishing-port 
of  no  more  importance  than  the  little  Greek  fishing-village 
Rhacotis,  whose  ruins  lie  buried  beneath  its  spacious  quays. 
The  harbour  was  originally  formed  by  the  construction  of 
a  vast  mole  (Heptastadion)  joining  the  island  of  Pharos  to 
the  mainland;  and  this  stupendous  feat  of  engineering, 
planned  and  carried  out  by  Alexander,  has  been  supple- 
mented by  the  magnificent  breakwater  constructed  by  Eng- 
lish engineers  in  1872,  at  a  cost  of  over  two-and-a-half 
millions  sterling.  After  Marseilles,  Malta,  and  Spezia,  it 
is  perhaps  the  finest  port  in  the  Mediterranean,  both  on 
account  of  its  natural  advantages  as  a  haven,  and  by  reason 
of  the  vast  engineering  works  mentioned  above. 

The  western  harbour  (formerly  called  Eunostos,  "good 
home-sailing"),  of  which  we  are  speaking, — for  the  east- 
ern, or  so-called  New  Harbour,  is  choked  by  sand  and  only 
used  by  small  native  craft, —  has,  however,  one  serious 
drawback   in   a   dangerous   bar    at   the    entrance,   which 


ALEXANDKIA  AND   THE   NILE    DELTA.  95 

should,  of  course,  have  been  partially  blown  up  before  the 
breakwater  and  the  other  engineering  operations  were 
undertaken.  Owing  to  this  obstruction,  large  vessels 
seldom  attempted,  till  recently,  to  cross  the  bar  in  rough 
weather,  and  never  at  night.  In  the  course  of  the  last  few 
years,  however,  a  wide  and  deep  channel  has  been  cut 
through  this  reef,  and  now  the  entrance  to  the  harbour  is 
practicable  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  In  fact, 
during  1896  over  four  hundred  vessels  entered  Alexandria 
harbour  in  the  night-time.  These  improvements  have 
naturally  tended  to  make  Alexandria  more  resorted  to  than 
formerly  by  travellers  as  the  port  of  entry  for  Cairo,  instead 
of  Port  Said  or  Ismailia. 

During  the  period  of  Turkish  misrule  —  when  Egypt 
under  the  Mamelukes,  though  nominally  a  vilayet  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  was  practically  under  the  dominion  of 
the  Beys  —  the  trade  of  Alexandria  had  declined  consider- 
ably, and  Rosetta  had  taken  away  most  of  its  commerce. 
When  Mehemet  Ali,  the  founder  of  the  present  dynasty, 
rose  to  power,  his  clear  intellect  at  once  comprehended  the 
importance  of  this  ancient  emporium  and  the  wisdom  of 
Alexander's  choice  of  a  site  for  the  port  which  was  des- 
tined to  become  the  commercial  centre  of  three  continents. 

Mehemet  Ali  is  the  creator  of  modern  Alexandria.  He 
deepened  the  harbour,  which  had  been  allowed  to  be 
choked  by  the  accumulation  of  sand,  lined  it  with  spacious 
quays,  built  the  massive  forts  which  protect  the  coast,  and 
restored  the  city  to  its  old  commercial  importance  by 
putting  it  into  communication  with  the  Nile  through  the 
medium  of  the  Mahmoudiyeh  Canal.  This  vast  under- 
taking was  only  carried  out  with  great  loss  of  life.  It  was 
excavated  by  the  forced  labour  of  250,000  peasants,  of 
whom  some  twenty  thousand  died  from  the  heat  and 
the  severe  toil.  The  whole  canal  was  completed  in  one 
year  (1819)  and  cost  X300,000. 


96  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

The  great  thoroughfare  of  Alexandria  —  a  fine  street 
running  in  a  straight  line  from  the  western  gate  of  the 
city  to  the  Place  Mehemet  Ali  —  is  within  a  few  minutes' 
walk  of  the  quay.  A  sudden  turn,  and  the  strange  ming- 
ling of  Eastern  and  Western  life  bursts  upon  the  spectator's 
astonished  gaze.  This  living  diorama,  formed  by  the  bril- 
liant and  ever-shifting  crowd,  is  in  its  way  unique. 

The  Place  Mehemet  Ali,  usually  called  for  the  sake  of 
brevity  the  Grand  Square,  is  close  at  hand.  This  is  the 
centre  of  the  European  quarter,  and  round  it  are  collected 
the  banks,  consular  offices,  hotels,  and  principal  shops. 
This  square,  the  focus  of  the  life  of  modern  Alexandria, 
is  appropriately  named  after  the  founder  of  the  present 
dynasty,  and  the  creator  of  the  Egypt  of  to-day. 

To  this  great  ruler,  who  at  one  time  bid  fair  to  become 
the  founder  not  only  of  an  independent  kingdom,  but  of 
a  great  Oriental  empire,  Alexandria  owes  much  of  its 
prosperity  and  commercial  importance.  The  career  of 
Mehemet  Ali  is  interesting  and  romantic.  There  is  a 
certain  similarity  between  his  history  and  that  of  Napoleon 
I.,  and  the  coincidence  seems  heightened  when  we  remem- 
ber that  they  were  both  born  in  the  same  year.  Each, 
rising  from  an  obscure  position,  started  as  an  adventurer 
on  foreign  soil,  and  each  rose  to  political  eminence  by  force 
of  arms.  Unlike  Napoleon,  however,  in  one  important 
/  point,  Mehemet  Ali  founded  a  dynasty  which  still  remains 
in  power,  in  spite""of  the  weakness  and  incapacity  of  his 
successors.  To  Western  minds,  perhaps,  his  chief  claim  to 
hold  a  high  rank  in  the  world's  history  lies  in  his  efforts 
to  introduce  European  institutions  and  methods  of  civili- 
sation, and  to  establish  a  system  of  government  opposed  to 
Mohammedan  instincts.  He  created  an  army  and  navy 
which  were  partly  based  on  European  models,  stimulated 
agriculture  and  trade,  and  organised  an  administrative 
and  fiscal  system  which  did  much  towards  putting  the 


ALEXANDRIA   AND    THE    NILE    DELTA.  97 

country  on  a  sound  financial  footing.  The  great  blot  of  his 
reign  was,  no  doubt,  the  horrible  massacre  of  the  Mame- 
luke beys ;  and  this  has  been  the  great  point  of  attack  by 
his  enemies  and  detractors.  It  is  difficult  to  excuse  this 
Oriental  example  of  a  coup  d^Stat;  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  existence  of  this  turbulent  and  rebellious 
element  was  incompatible  with  the  maintenance  of  his  rule, 
and  that  the  peace  of  the  country  was  as  much  endangered 
by  the  Mameluke  beys  as  was  that  of  the  Porte  by  the 
Janissaries  a  few  years  later,  when  a  somewhat  similar 
atrocity  was  perpetrated. 

In  the  middle  of  the  square  stands  a  handsome  eques- 
trian statue  of  Mehemet  Ali,  which  is  in  one  respect  a 
remarkably  singular  monument.  The  Mohammedan  re- 
ligion demands  the  strictest  interpretation  of  the  injunc- 
tion in  the  decalogue  against  making  "to  thyself  any 
graven  image,"  and  consequently  a  statue  to  a  follower 
of  the  Moslem  faith  is  rarely  seen  in  a  Mohanamedan 
country.  The  erection  of  this  particular  monument  was 
much  resented  by  the  more  orthodox  of  the  Mussulman 
population  of  Alexandria,  and  the  religious  feelings  of  the 
mob  manifested  themselves  in  riots  and  other  hostile 
demonstrations.  Not  only  representations  in  stone  or 
metal,  but  any  kind  of  likeness  of  the  human  form  is 
thought  impious  by  Mohammedans.  They  believe  that  the 
author  will  be  compelled  on  the  Resurrection  Day  to 
endow  with  life  the  sacrilegious  counterfeit  presentment. 
Tourists  in  Egypt  who  are  addicted  to  sketching,  or  who 
dabble  in  photography,  will  do  well  to  remember  these 
conscientious  scruples  of  the  Moslem  race,  and  not  let 
their  zeal  for  bringing  back  pictorial  mementoes  of  their 
travels  induce  them  to  take  "  pot  shots  "  at  mosque  inte- 
riors, for  instance.  In  Egypt,  no  doubt,  the  natives  have 
too  wholesome  a  dread  of  the  Franks  to  manifest  their 
outraged  feelings  by  physical  violence  ;  but  still  it  is  ungen- 


98  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

erous,  not  to  say  unchristian,  to  wound  people's  religious 
prejudices,  however  superstitious  they  may  appear  to  us. 
In  some  other  countries  of  North  Africa,  notably  in  the 
interior  of  Morocco  or  Tripoli,  promiscuous  photography 
might  be  attended  with  disagreeable  results,  if  not  a 
certain  amount  of  danger.  A  tourist  would  find  a  kodak 
camera,  even  with  all  the  latest  improvements,  a  somewhat 
inefficient  weapon  against  a  mob  of  fanatical  Arabs. 

For  the  best  view  of  the  city  and  the  surrounding  country 
we  must  climb  the  slopes  of  Mount  Caffarelli  (now  gener- 
ally called  Fort  Napoleon)  to  the  fort  which  crowns  the 
summit,  or  make  our  way  to  the  fortress  Kom-el-Deek  on 
the  elevated  ground  near  the  Rosetta  Gate.  Alexandria, 
spread  out  like  a  map,  lies  at  our  feet.  At  this  height  the 
commonplace  aspect  of  a  bustling  and  thriving  seaport, 
which  seems,  on  a  closer  acquaintance,  to  be  Europeanised 
and  modernised  out  of  the  least  resemblance  to  an  Oriental 
city,  is  changed  to  a  prospect  of  some  beauty.  At  Alexan- 
dria, even  more  than  at  most  cities  of  the  East,  distance 
lends  enchantment  to  the  view.  From  these  heights  the 
squalid  back  streets  of  the  native  quarter,  and  the 
modern  hausmannised  main  thoroughfares,  look  like  dark 
threads  woven  into  the  web  of  the  city,  relieved  by  the 
white  mosques,  with  their  swelling  domes  curving  inward 
like  fan-palms  towards  the  crescents,  flashing  in  the  rays  of 
the  sun,  and  their  tall,  graceful  minarets  piercing  the  smoke- 
less and  cloudless  atmosphere.  The  subdued  roar  of  the 
busy  streets  and  quays  is  occasionally  varied  by  the  melodi- 
ous cry  of  the  muezzin.  Then,  looking  northward,  one 
sees  the  clear  blue  of  the  Mediterranean,  till  it  is  lost  in  the 
hazy  horizon.  To  the  west  and  south  the  placid  waters  of 
the  Mareotis  Lake,  in  reality  a  shallow  and  insalubrious 
lagoon,  but  to  all  appearance  a  smiling  lake,  which,  with 
its  waters  fringed  by  the  low-lying  sand-dunes,  reminds  the 
spectator  of  the  peculiar  beauties  of  the  Norfolk  Broads. 


ALEXANDRIA   AND    THE    NILE    DELTA.  99 

Beyond  Lake  Mareotis  lies  the  luxuriant  plain  of  the 
Delta.  The  view  of  this  plain  may  not  be  what  is  called 
picturesque,  but  to  the  artist  the  scenery  has  its  special 
charm.  It  is  no  doubt  flat  and  monotonous,  but  there  is  no 
monotony  of  colour  in  this  richly  cultivated  plain,  once  the 
granary  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Simplicity  is,  in  short,  the 
predominant  "  note  "  in  the  scenery  of  Lower  Egypt,  but, 
as  Mr.  H.  D.  Traill  has  well  observed,  here  the  artist  finds 
"the  broadest  effects  produced  by  the  slenderest  means." 
In  the  description  of  this  North  African  Holland  innumer- 
able pens  have  been  worn  out  in  comparison  and  simile. 
To  some  this  huge  market-garden,  with  its  network  of  canals 
and  ditches,  simply  invites  a  homely  comparison  with  a 
chess-board.  Others,  with  a  gift  for  fanciful  metaphor, 
will  liken  the  landscape  to  a  green  robe  or  carpet  shot  with 
silver  threads,  or  to  a  seven-ribbed  fan,  the  ribs  being,  of 
course,  the  seven  mouths  of  the  Nile.  One  may,  however, 
differ  as  to  the  most  appropriate  metaphors,  but  all  must 
agree  that  there  are  unique  elements  of  beauty  in  the  Delta 
landscape.  Seen,  as  most  tourists  do  see  it,  in  winter  or 
spring,  the  green  fields  of  waving  corn  and  barley,  the  mead- 
ows of  watermelons  and  cucumbers,  the  fields  of  pea  and 
purple  lupin  one  mass  of  colours,  interspersed  with  the 
palm-groves  and  white  minarets  which  mark  the  site  of  the 
almost  invisible  mud-villages,  and  intersected  thickly  with 
countless  canals  and  trenches  that  in  the  distance  look  like 
silver  threads,  and  suggest  Brobdignagian  filigree  work  or 
the  delicate  tracery  of  King  Frost  on  our  window-panes, 
the  view  is  impressive,  and  not  without  beauty. 

In  the  summer  and  early  autumn,  especially  during 
August  and  September,  when  the  Nile  is  at  its  height,  the 
view  is  still  more  striking,  though  hardly  so  beautiful. 
Then  it  is  that  this  Protean  country  offers  its  most  impres- 
sive aspect.  The  Delta  becomes  an  inland  archipelago 
studded  with  green  islands,  each  island  crowned  with  a 


100         THE  CITY  OF  THE  CALIPHS. 

white-mosqued  village,  or  conspicuous  with  a  cluster  of 
palms.  The  Nile  and  its  swollen  tributaries  are  covered 
with  huge-sailed  dahabiyehs,  which  give  life  and  variety 
to  the  watery  expanse. 

Alexandria  can  boast  of  few  "  lions,"  as  the  word  is  usually 
understood,  but  of  these  by  far  the  most  interesting  is  the 
column  known  by  the  name  of  Pompey's  Pillar.  Every  one 
has  heard  of  this  famous  monolith,  which  is  as  closely  asso- 
ciated in  people's  minds  with  Alexandria  as  the  Coliseum 
is  with  Rome,  the  Alhambra  with  Granada,  or  the  Krem- 
lin with  Moscow.  It  has,  of  course,  no  more  to  do  with 
the  Pompey  of  history  (to  whom  it  is  attributed  by  the 
unlettered  tourist)  than  has  Cleopatra's  Needle  with  that 
famous  queen,  the  "  Serpent  of  old  Nile  "  or  Joseph's  Well 
at  Cairo  with  the  Hebrew  patriarch.  It  owes  its  name  to 
the  fact  that  a  certain  prefect  named  after  Caesar's  great 
rival  erected  on  the  summit  of  an  existing  column  —  in  the 
opinion  of  Professor  Mahaffy  one  erected  by  Ptolemy  II.  in 
memory  of  his  favorite  wife,  Arsinoe  —  a  statue  in  honour 
of  the  horse  of  the  Roman  emperor  Diocletian.  There  is 
a  familiar  legend  which  has  been  invented  to  account  for 
the  special  reason  of  its  erection,  which  guide-book  com- 
pilers are  very  fond  of.  According  to  the  story,  this  historic 
animal,  through  an  opportune  stumble,  stayed  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Alexandrian  Christians,  as  the  tyrannical  em- 
peror had  sworn  to  continue  the  massacre  till  the  blood  of 
the  victims  reached  his  horse's  knees.  Antiquarians  and 
Egyptologists  are,  however,  given  to  scoffing  at  the  tradi- 
tion as  a  plausible  myth. 

In  the  opinion  of  many  learned  authorities,  the  shaft  of 
this  column  was  once  a  portion  of  the  Serapeum,  that  famous 
building  which  was  both  a  temple  of  the  heathen  god 
Serapis  and  a  vast  treasure-house  of  ancient  civilisation. 
In  order  to  account  for  its  omission  in  the  descriptions  of 
Alexandria  given  by  Pliny  and  Strabo,  who  had  mentioned 


ALEXANDKIA   AND    THIS    NILE   ^ELTA.  ,  101 

the  two  obelisks  of  Cleopatra,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the 
column  had  fallen,  and  that  the  Prefect  Pompey  had  merely 
reerected  it  in  honour  of  Diocletian,  and  replaced  the  statue 
of  Serapis  with  one  of  the  emperor,  —  or  of  his  horse,  ac- 
cording to  some  chroniclers.  This  statue,  if  it  ever  existed, 
has  now  disappeared.  As  the  column  stands,  however,  it 
is  a  singularly  striking  and  beautiful  monument,  owing  to 
its  great  height,  simplicity  of  form,  and  elegant  proportions. 
It  reminds  the  spectator  a  little  of  Nelson's  column  in 
Trafalgar  Square ;  and  perhaps  the  absence  of  a  statue  is 
not  altogether  to  be  regretted,  considering  the  height  of  the 
column,  as  it  might  suggest  to  the  irrepressible  tourists, 
who  scoff  at  Nelson's  statue  as  the  "  Mast-headed  Admiral," 
some  similar  witticism  at  the  expense  of  Diocletian. 

With  the  exception  of  this  monolith,  which,  "  a  solitary 
column,  mourns  above  its  prostrate  brethren,"  only  a  few 
fragmentary  and  scattered  ruins  of  fallen  columns  mark  the 
site  of  the  world-renowned  Serapeum.  Nothing  else  remains 
of  the  famous  library,  the  magnificent  portico  with  its  hun- 
dred steps,  the  vast  halls,  and  the  four  hundred  marble 
columns  of  that  great  building,  designed  to  perpetuate  the 
glories  of  the  Ptolemies.  This  library,  which  was  the 
forerunner  of  the  great  libraries  of  modern  times,  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  equally  famous  one  which  was 
attached  to  the  Museum,  whose  exact  site  is  still  a  bone  of 
contention  among  antiquarians.  The  latter  was  destroyed 
by  accident  when  Julius  Caesar  set  fire  to  the  Alex- 
andrian fleet.  The  Serapeum  collection  survived  for  six 
hundred  years,  till  its  wanton  destruction  through  the 
fanaticism  of  the  Caliph  Omar.  The  Arab  conqueror  is 
said  to  have  justified  this  barbarism  with  a  fallacious  epi- 
gram, which  was  as  unanswerable,  however  logically  faulty, 
as  the  famous  one  familiar  to  students  of  English  history 
under  the  name  of  Archbishop  Morton's  Fork.  "  If  these 
writings,"  declared  the  uncompromising  conqueror,  "  agree 


102  .  TPE  <;iTT<  OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

with  the  Book  of  God,  they  are  useless,  and  need  not  be 
preserved ;  if  they  disagree,  they  are  pernicious,  and  ought 
to  be  destroyed."  Nothing  could  prevail  against  this  fla^ 
grant  example  of  a  petitio  principii,  and  for  six  months  the 
three  hundred  thousand  parchments  supplied  fuel  for  the 
four  thousand  baths  of  Alexandria. 

Hard  by  Pompey's  Pillar  is  a  dreary  waste,  dotted  with 
curiously  carved  structures.  This  is  the  Mohammedan 
cemetery.  As  in  most  Oriental  towns,  the  cemetery  is  at 
the  west  end  of  the  town,  as  the  Mohammedans  consider 
that  the  quarter  of  the  horizon  in  which  the  sun  sets  is  the 
most  suitable  spot  for  their  burying-places.  In  this  melan- 
choly city  of  the  dead  are  buried  also  many  of  the  ruins  of 
the  Serapeum,  and  scattered  about  among  the  tombs  are 
fragments  of  columns  and  broken  pedestals.  On  some  of 
the  tombs  a  green  turban  is  roughly  painted,  strangely  out 
of  harmony  with  the  severe  stone-carving.  This  signifies 
that  the  tomb  holds  the  remains  of  a  descendant  of  the 
Prophet,  or  of  a  devout  Moslem  who  had  himself,  and  not 
vicariously  as  is  so  often  done,  made  the  pilgrimage  to  the 
sacred  city  of  Mecca.  Some  of  the  headstones  are  elab- 
orately carved,  but  most  are  quite  plain,  with  the  exception 
of  a  verse  of  the  Koran  cut  in  the  stone.  The  observant 
tourist  will  notice  on  many  of  the  tombs  a  curious  little 
round  hole  cut  in  the  stone  at  the  head,  which  seems  to  be 
intended  to  form  a  passage  to  the  interior  of  the  vault, 
though  the  aperture  is  generally  filled  up  with  earth.  It  is 
said  that  this  passage  was  made  to  enable  the  Angel  Israfel, 
at  the  Resurrection,  to  draw  out  the  occupant  by  the  hair 
of  his  head  ;  and  the  custom  which  obtains  among  the  lower- 
class  Moslems  of  shaving  the  head,  with  the  exception  of  a 
round  tuft  of  hair  in  the  middle  —  a  fashion  which  suggests 
an  incipient  pigtail  or  an  inverted  tonsure  —  is  as  much  due 
to  this  superstition  as  to  sanitary  considerations. 

Of  far  greater  interest  than  this  comparatively  modern 


ALEXANDRIA   AND    THE    NILE   DELTA.  103 

cemetery  are  the  cave  cemeteries  of  El-Meks.  These  cata- 
combs are  some  four  miles  from  the  city.  The  route  along 
the  extended  low  ridge  of  sand-hills  is  singularly  unpictur- 
esque;  but  the  windmills  (built  by  Napoleon  I.  to  grind 
corn  for  his  troops  when  he  occupied  the  country)  which 
fringe  the  shore  give  a  homely  aspect  to  the  country,  and 
serve  at  any  rate  to  break  the  monotony  of  this  dreary  and 
desolate  region.  We  soon  reach  Said  Pacha's  unfinished 
palace  of  El-Meks,  which  owes  its  origin  to  the  mania  for 
building  which  helped  to  make  the  reign  of  that  weak- 
minded  ruler  so  costly  to  his  overtaxed  subjects.  One 
glimpse  at  the  bastard  style  of  architecture  is  sufficient 
to  remove  any  feeling  of  disappointment  on  being  told  that 
the  building  is  not  open  to  the  public. 

The  catacombs,  which  spread  a  considerable  distance 
along  the  seashore,  and  of  which  the  so-called  Baths  of 
Cleopatra  are  a  part,  are  very  extensive,  and  tourists  are 
usually  satisfied  with  exploring  a  part.  There  are  no 
mummies,  but  the  niches  can  be  clearly  seen.  The  plan 
of  the  catacombs  is  curiously  like  the  wards  of  a  key. 

There  are  few  "  sights  "  in  Alexandria  of  much  interest 
besides  those  already  mentioned.  In  fact,  Alexandria  is 
interesting  more  as  a  city  of  sites  than  sights.  It  is  true 
that  the  names  of  some  of  the  mosques  —  such  as  that  of  the 
One  Thousand  and  One  Columns,  built  on  the  spot  where 
Saint  Mark  suffered  martyrdom,  and  the  Mosque  of  Saint 
Athanasius  —  are  calculated  to  arouse  the  curiosity  of  the 
tourist ;  but  the  interest  is  in  the  name  alone.  The 
Mosque  of  Many  Columns  is  turned  into  a  quarantine  sta- 
tion, and  the  Mosque  of  Saint  Athanasius  has  no  connection 
with  the  great  Father  except  that  it  stands  on  the  site  of  a 
church  in  which  he  probably  preached. 

Then  there  is  the  Coptic  Convent  of  Saint  Mark,  which, 
according  to  the  inmates,  contains  the  body  of  the  great 
evangelist,  —  an  assertion  which  would  scarcely  deceive 


104  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  most  ignorant  and  most  credulous  tourist  that  ever 
intrusted  himself  to  the  fostering  care  of  Messrs.  Cook,  as 
it  is  well  known  that  Saint  Mark's  body  was  removed  to 
Yenice  in  the  ninth  century.  The  mosque  with  the  ornate 
exterior  and  lofty  minaret,  in  which  the  remains  of  Said 
Pacha  are  buried,  called  Mosque  Nebbi  Daniel,  is  the  only 
one  besides  those  already  mentioned  which  would  be  worth 
visiting.  This  is  interesting  to  Egyptologists  as  being  the 
reputed  site  of  the  tomb  of  Alexander  the  Great.  As, 
however,  no  Christians  are  admitted  to  this  khedivial 
mausoleum,  no  antiquarian  researches  or  excavations  can 
be  undertaken  in  order  to  verify  this  traditional  site.  The 
stone  sarcophagus  in  the  British  Museum,  which  was 
thought  to  have  been  that  of  Alexander,  is  now  known 
to  be  erroneously  attributed  to  this  monarch.  It  was 
made  for  an  earlier  king  of  the  thirtieth  dynasty,  b.  c. 
378-358. 


CHAPTER  YI. 

THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUEZ   CANAL. 

THE  coast  between  Rosetta  and  Port  Said  is,  like  the 
rest  of  the  Egyptian  littoral,  flat  and  monotonous. 
The  only  break  in  Hie  dreary  vista  is  afforded  by  the 
picturesque-looking  town  of  Damietta,  which,  with  its 
lofty  houses,  looking  in  the  distance  like  marble  palaces, 
has  a  striking  appearance  seen  from  the  sea.  The  town, 
though  containing  some  spacious  bazaars  and  several  large 
and  well-proportioned  mosques,  has  little  to  attract  the 
visitor,  and  there  are  no  antiquities  or  buildings  of  any 
historic  interest.  The  traveller  full  of  the  traditions  of 
the  Crusades,  who  expects  to  find  some  traces  of  Saladin 
and  the  Saracens,  will  be  doomed  to  disappointment. 
Damietta  is  comparatively  modern,  the  old  Byzantine  city 
having  been  destroyed  by  the  Arabs  early  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  rebuilt  —  at  a  safer  distance  from  invasion 
by  sea  —  a  few  miles  inland,  under  the  name  of  Men- 
sheeyah.  One  of  the  gateways  of  the  modern  town,  the 
Mensheeyah  Gate,  serves  as  a  reminder  of  its  former  name. 
Though  the  trade  of  Damietta  has,  in  common  with  most 
of  the  Delta  seaports,  declined  since  the  construction  of 
the  Mahmoudiyeh  Canal,  it  is  still  a  town  of  some  com- 
mercial importance,  and  consular  representatives  of  several 
European  powers  are  stationed  here.  To  sportsmen  Dami- 
etta offers  special  advantages,  as  it  makes  capital  head- 
quarters for  the  wild-fowl  shooting  on  Menzaleh  Lake, 
which  teems  with  aquatic  birds  of  all  kinds.     Myriads  of 

105 


106  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

wild  duck  may  be  seen  feeding  here,  and  "  big  game,"  — 
if  the  expression  can  be  applied  to  birds,  —  in  the  shape  of 
herons,  pelicans,  storks,  flamingoes,  etc.,  is  plentiful.  In 
the  marshes  which  abut  on  the  lake  specimens  of  the  papy- 
rus are  to  be  found,  this  neighbourhood  being  one  of  the 
few  habitats  of  this  rare  plant. 

Soon  after  rounding  the  projecting  ridge  of  low  sand- 
hills, which  fringe  the  estuary  of  the  Damietta  branch  of 
the  Nile,  the  noble  proportions  of  the  loftiest  lighthouse 
in  the  Mediterranean  come  into  view.  It  is  fitted  with 
one  of  the  most  powerful  electric  lights  in  the  world,  its 
penetrating  rays  being  visible  on  a  clear  night  at  a  dis- 
tance of  over  twenty-five  miles.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
forest  of  masts,  apparently  springing  out  of  the  desert, 
informs  the  passenger  of  the  near  vicinity  of  Port  Said. 
There  is,  of  course,  nothing  to  see  at  Port  Said  from  a 
tourist's  standpoint.  The  town  is  little  more  than  a  large 
coaling  station,  and  is  of  very  recent  growth.  It  owes  its 
existence  solely  to  the  Suez  Canal,  and  to  the  fact  that  the 
water  at  that  part  of  the  coast  is  deeper  than  at  Pelusium, 
where  the  isthmus  is  narrowest. 

The  town  is  built  partly  on  artificial  foundations  on  the 
strip  of  low  sand  banks  which  form  a  natural  sea-wall, 
protecting  Lake  Menzaleh  from  the  Mediterranean.  In 
the  autumn,  at  high  Nile,  it  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
water.  An  imaginative  writer  once  called  Port  Said  the 
Venice  of  Africa,  —  not  a  very  happy  description,  as  the 
essentially  modern  appearance  of  this  coaling  station 
strikes  the  most  unobservant  visitor.  The  comparison 
might  for  its  inappositeness  rank  with  the  proverbial  one 
between  Macedon  and  Monmouth.  Both  Venice  and  Port 
Said  are  landlocked,  and  that  is  the  only  feature  they  have 
in  common. 

The  sandy  plains  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town  are,  how- 
ever, full  of  interest  to  the  historian  and  archaeologist. 


THE    STORY    OF   THE    SUEZ    CANAL.  107 

Here  may  be  found  ruins  and  remains  of  antiquity  which 
recall  a  period  of  civilisation  reaching  back  more  centuries 
than  Port  Said  (built  in  1859)  does  in  years.  The  ruins 
of  Pelusium  (the  Sin  of  the  Old  Testament),  the  key  of 
northeastern  Egypt  in  the  Pharaonic  period,  are  only 
eighteen  miles  distant,  and  along  the  shore  may  still  be 
traced  a  few  vestiges  of  the  great  highway  —  the  oldest 
road  in  the  world  of  which  remains  exist  —  constructed  by 
Rameses  the  Great  in  1350  b.  c,  when  he  undertook  his 
expedition  for  the  conquest  of  Syria. 

To  come  to  more  recent  history,  it  was  on  these  shores 
that  Cambyses  defeated  the  Egyptians ;  and  here,  some  five 
centuries  later,  Pompey  the  Great  was  treacherously  mur- 
dered when  he  fled  to  Egypt  after  the  battle  of  Pharsalia. 

To  the  southwest  of  Port  Said,  near  the  little  fishing- 
village  of  Sais,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Menzaleh, 
are  the  magnificent  ruins  of  Tanis  (the  Zoan  of  the  Old 
Testament).  These  seldom -visited  remains  are  only 
second  to  those  of  Thebes  and  Memphis  in  historical 
and  archaeological  interest.  The  ruins  were  uncovered  at 
great  cost  of  labour  by  the  late  Mariette  Bey,  and  in  the 
Great  Temple  were  unearthed  some  of  the  most  notable 
monuments  of  the  Pharaonic  age,  including  over  a  dozen 
gigantic  fallen  obelisks.  This  vast  building,  restored  and 
enlarged  by  Rameses  II.,  dates  back  over  five  thousand 
years.  As  Thebes  declined,  Tanis  rose  in  importance,  and 
under  the  kings  of  the  Twenty-first  Dynasty  it  became  the 
chief  seat  of  government.  Mr.  John  Macgregor  (Rob 
Roy),  who  was  one  of  the  first  of  modern  travellers  to  call 
attention  to  these  grand  ruins,  declares  that  of  all  the 
celebrated  remains  he  has  seen,  none  impressed  him 
"  so  deeply  with  the  sense  of  fallen  and  deserted  magnifi- 
cence "  as  the  ruined  temple  of  Tanis. 

The  Suez  Canal  is  admittedly  one  of  the  greatest  under^ 
takings  of  modern  times,  and  has  perhaps  effected  a  greater 


108  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

transformation  in  the  world's  commerce,  during  the  twenty 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  its  completion,  than  has  been 
effected  in  the  same  period  by  the  agency  of  steam. 

It  was  emphatically  the  work  of  one  man,  and  of  one, 
too,  who  was  devoid  of  the  slightest  technical  training  in 
the  engineering  profession.  Monsieur  de  Lesseps  cannot,  of 
course,  claim  any  originality  in  the  conception  of  this  great 
undertaking,  for  the  idea  of  opening  up  communication 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea  by  means  of  a 
maritime  canal  is  almost  as  old  as  Egypt  itself,  and  many 
attempts  were  made  by  the  rulers  of  Egypt,  from  Sesostris 
downwards,  to  span  the  isthmus  with  "  a  bridge  of  water." 
Most  of  these  projects  proved  abortive,  though  there  was 
some  kind  of  water  communication  between  the  two  seas  in 
the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  it  was  by  this  canal  that 
Cleopatra  attempted  to  escape  after  the  battle  of  Actium. 
When  Napoleon  the  Great  occupied  Egypt,  he  went  so  far 
as  to  appoint  a  commission  of  engineers  to  examine  into  a 
projected  scheme  for  a  maritime  canal ;  but  owing  to  the 
ignorance  of  the  commissioners,  who  reported  that  there 
was  a  difference  of  thirty  feet  in  the  levels  of  the  two  seas, 
—  though  there  is  really  scarcely  more  than  six  inches, — 
which  would  necessitate  vast  locks  and  involve  an  enormous 
outlay  of  money,  the  plan  was  given  up. 

The  Suez  Canal  is,  in  short,  the  work  of  one  great  man, 
and  its  existence  is  due  to  the  undoubted  courage  and  in- 
domitable energy,  to  the  intensity  of  conviction  and  to  the 
magnetic  personality,  of  M.  de  Lesseps,  which  influenced 
every  one  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  from  the  viceroy 
down  to  the  humblest  fellah.  This  great  project  was  car- 
ried out,  too,  not  by  a  professional  engineer,  but  by  a  mere 
consular  clerk,  and  was  executed  in  spite  of  the  most  de- 
termined opposition  of  politicians  and  capitalists,  and  in  the 
teeth  of  the  mockery  and  ridicule  of  practical  engineers, 
who  affected  to  sneer  at  the  scheme  as  the  chimerical  dream 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUEZ    CANAL.  109 

of  a  vainglorious  Frenchman.  The  canal,  regarded  from  a 
purely  picturesque  standpoint,  does  not  present  such  strik- 
ing features  as  other  great  monuments  of  engineering  skill, 
—  the  Forth  Bridge,  the  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel,  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  or  the  railway  which  scales  the  highest  peaks  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  This  "  huge  ditch,"  as  it  has  been  con- 
temptuously called,  has  not,  indeed,  "been  carried  over 
high  mountains,  nor  cut  through  rock-bound  tunnels,  nor 
have  its  waters  been  confined  by  Titanic  masses  of  masonry.'* 
In  fact,  technically  speaking,  the  name  "  canal,"  as  applied 
to  this  channel,  is  a  misnomer.  It  has  nothing  in  common 
with  other  canals,  —  no  locks,  gates,  reservoirs,  nor  pump- 
ing engines.  It  is  really  an  artificial  strait,  —  a  prolonga- 
tion of  an  arm  of  the  SQa.  We  can  freely  concede  this ;  yet 
to  those  of  imaginative  temperament  there  are  elements  of 
romance  about  this  colossal  enterprise.  It  is  the  creation 
of  a  nineteenth-century  wizard,  who,  with  his  enchanter's 
wand  —  the  spade  —  has  transformed  the  shape  of  the 
globe,  and  summoned  the  sea  to  flow  uninterruptedly  from 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  Indian  Ocean.  Then,  too,  the 
most  matter-of-fact  traveller  who  traverses  it  can  scarcely 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  peculiar  genius  loci.  Every 
mile  of  the  canal  passes  through  a  region  enriched  by  the 
memories  of  events  which  had  their  birth  in  the  remotest 
ages  of  antiquity.  Across  this  plain  Abraham  wandered 
from  distant  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  some  four  thousand  years 
ago.  Beyond  the  placid  waters  of  Lake  Menzaleh  lie  the 
ruins  of  Zoan,  where  Moses  performed  his  miracles.  On 
the  right  lies  the  Plain  of  Pelusium,  across  which  the  hosts 
of  Persian,  Greek,  and  Roman  conquerers  successively  swept 
to  take  possession  of  the  riches  of  Egypt.  In  passing 
through  the  canal  at  night, —  the  electric  light  serving  as  a 
"  pillar  of  fire  "  to  the  steamer,  as  it  swiftly  but  silently 
ploughs  its  course  through  the  desert, —  the  strange  im- 
pressiveness  of  the  scene  is  intensified.     "  The  Suez  Canal 


110  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

links  together,  in  striking  contrast,  the  great  Past  and  the 
greater  Present,  pointing  to  a  future  which  we  are  as  little 
able  to  divine  as  were  the  Pharaohs  or  Ptolemies  of  old  to 
forecast  the  wonders  of  the  nineteenth  century.'* 

The  history  of  the  enterprise  from  1855,  when  the  con- 
cession was  granted  by  Said  Pacha,  to  the  inauguration  of 
the  canal  in  November,  1869,  reads  like  a  romance.  The 
main  difficulties  were  political,  for  the  physical  obstacles 
were  not  serious,  considering  the  magnitude  of  the  task. 
Indeed,  the  very  simplicity  of  the  undertaking  from  an 
engineering  point  of  view  —  for  the  cutting  of  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez  was  merely  a  question  of  time,  money,  and  a  suffi- 
ciency of  native  labour  in  the  crudest  form  —  no  doubt 
contributed  not  a  little  to  wreck  M.  de  Lesseps's  subsequent 
enterprise,  as  it  led  him  to  underestimate  the  serious  nature 
of  his  task  in  the  western  hemisphere,  in  which  the  phys- 
ical obstacles  were  almost  insuperable  in  comparison.  Then, 
in  the  case  of  Panama,  there  were  no  predecessors  from 
whose  mistakes  M.  de  Lesseps  might  profit,  as  was  the  case 
in  Egypt,  where  previous  projectors  were  seriously  handi- 
capped through  accepting  Napoleon's  engineers'  erroneous 
calculation  of  the  Red  Sea  being  thirty  feet  higher  than 
the  Mediterranean  as  a  hydrographical  axiom.  Then,  too, 
there  seemed  to  be  a  kind  of  tradition  among  them  that 
no  canal  could  be  a  success  which  did  not  depend  upon  the 
Nile  for  its  water  supply.  It  was  the  political  aspect  of 
the  canal  which  gave  rise  to  so  much  opposition ;  and  the 
political  significance  of  the  exclusive  control,  by  a  French 
company,  of  the  great  highway  to  India  and  the  Australasian 
colonies  was  appreciated  at  its  full  value  by  Great  Britain. 

In  short,  the  Suez  Canal  project  was  regarded  by  diplo- 
matists as  an  international  question  involving  serious  issues, 
and  it  was  certainly  a  powerful  factor  in  European  politics. 
The  neutrality  of  the  canal  in  times  of  war  was  felt  to  be  a 
matter  of  great  importance ;  for,  as  it  was  destined  to  be 


THE    STORY    OF    THE  SUEZ    CANAL.  Ill 

the  great  gate  between  the  eastern  and  western  hemi- 
spheres, it  was  essential  that  it  should  be  kept  open.  In 
fact,  to  look  ahead  a  few  years,  one  reason  for  the  inter- 
vention of  the  English,  in  helping  to  crush  the  military 
revolution  in  1882,  was  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  free 
waterway  in  the  canal,  which  was  menaced  by  Arabi's 
troops.  Lesseps's  chief  difficulty  lay  in  the  determined 
opposition  of  Lord  Palmerston,  whose  influence  with  the 
Porte  at  this  time  was  considerable.  The  British  Govern- 
ment succeeded  in  getting  the  imperial  firman  sanctioning 
the  concession  of  the  Viceroy  withheld  for  a  considerable 
time,  by  suggesting  that  it  would  tend  to  increase  the  inde- 
pendence of  Egypt.  Lord  Palmerston's  commercial  ob- 
jections to  the  canal  certainly  showed  a  striking  lack  of 
appreciation  of  the  economical  conditions  of  the  world's 
commerce.  His  argument  was  based  on  the  ill-founded 
assumption  that  England  would  lose  her  supremacy  as  a 
great  carrying  nation  if  this  new  maritime  route  were 
thrown  open  to  the  world.  Yet  by  reducing  the  voyage 
to  India  almost  one-half  England  would,  of  course,  benefit 
more  than  any  other  nation.  The  absurdity  of  Palmers- 
ton's  contention  is  sufficiently  demonstrated  by  the  fact 
that,  in  1895,  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  tonnage  of  ships 
which  passed  through  the  canal  carried  the  English  flag. 

There  was,  however,  some  sound  reason  in  Lord  Palmer- 
ston's  objection  to  the  canal,  as  a  statesman.  In  the  orig- 
inal concession  of  Said  Pacha,  the  territory  stretching  for 
several  miles  on  either  side  of  the  canal,  and  extending  its 
whole  length,  was  granted  to  the  Canal  Company.  Conse- 
quently, the  British  Government  contended  that  in  time  of 
war  France's  control  of  the  isthmus  would  be  a  menace  to 
England.  But  Lord  Palmerston  might  have  made  his  sanc- 
tion and  approval  contingent  on  the  amendment  of  this 
dangerous  clause,  instead  of  irritating  a  friendly  Power 
by  uncompromising  opposition. 


112  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Had  England  joined  the  other  Powers  in  furthering  M.  de 
Lesseps's  scheme,  and  not  placed  itself  out  of  court  by  its 
persistent  hostility,  in  all  probability  the  actual  neutrality 
of  the  canal  would  not  have  been  delayed  till  1887. 

M.  de  Lesseps,  whose  faith  in  the  project  was  not  shaken 
by  the  hostility  of  the  English  Government  and  the  apathy 
of  the  Porte,  started  operations  in  1859,  himself  cutting 
the  first  sod  in  the  narrow  strip  of  sand  between  Lake 
Menzaleh  and  the  Mediterranean,  on  April  25. 

Till  1864,  progress  was  steady  but  slow,  as  the  actual  ex- 
cavation was  done  by  manual  labour,  over  twenty-five  thou- 
sand fellahs  being  supplied  by  the  corv6e  for  this  work.  In 
this  year,  difficulties  arose  which  threatened  to  wreck  the 
enterprise.  The  new  Khedive,  Ismail,  was  alarmed  at  the 
continual  drain  on  his  subjects  by  the  concession  of  his 
predecessor,  which  compelled  him  to  supply  so  large  a  number 
of  workmen  to  the  Canal  Company,  and  threatened  to  stop 
the  supply  of  native  labourers.  The  dispute  was  submitted  to 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  III.,  as  arbitrator,  who  decided  that 
the  Egyptian  Government  should  pay  an  indemnity  of  one 
and  one-half  million  pounds  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  native 
labourers.  This  misfortune  proved,  however,  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  The  Company  was  compelled  to  use  machinery 
for  excavating  and  dredging,  which  proved  far  more  effica- 
cious and,  eventually,  more  economical  than  native  labour, 
and  enabled  the  contractors  to  complete  the  undertaking 
within  a  few  months  of  the  stipulated  time. 

By  November,  1869,  all  was  ready  for  the  inauguration 
ceremonies,  which  were  carried  out  by  the  Khedive  on  a 
scale  of  unparalleled  magnificence.  At  these  festivities 
all  the  Powers  of  Europe  were  officially  represented :  France 
and  Austria  by  the  Empress  Eugenie  and  the  Emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  respectively,  and  other  countries  by  mem- 
bers of  the  royal  family  or  special  envoys.  Even  England 
forgot  her  old  political  jealousy,  and  was  adequately  repre- 


THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUEZ    CANAL.  113 

sented.  But  then,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  arux 
of  the  objection  of  the  English  Government  had  been  re- 
moved in  1864,  when  Ismail  bought  back  from  the  Canal 
Company  the  territorial  rights  over  the  lands  abutting  on 
the  canal,  for  X3,360,000. 

In  order  to  impress  his  royal  guests,  whom  Ismail  had 
personally  invited  in  a  tour  which  he  made  round  the  Euro- 
pean courts  the  year  before,  the  Khedive,  who  seemed  to 
have  a  perfect  genius  for  spending,  seized  the  opportun- 
ity of  renovating  and  haussmannising  Cairo,  and  attempted 
to  turn  this  unique  Oriental  city  into  a  feeble  copy  of  a 
third-rate  European  capital.  Parks  and  public  gardens  were 
planted,  palaces  restored,  and  boulevards  built,  and  gas  was 
laid  in  the  chief  streets.  Among  the  entertainments  pro- 
vided for  visitors  were  concerts  and  theatrical  performances, 
for  which  the  chief  stars  of  Paris  and  Vienna  were  engaged. 
Even  a  new  opera  was  "  commanded  "  for  the  occasion,  Yerdi 
composing  the  Egyptian  opera  "Aida"  to  entertain  the 
Khedive's  guests.  It  has  been  computed  that  the  expenses 
attendant  on  the  inauguration  of  the  Suez  Canal  cost  the 
Khedive,  or  rather  Egypt,  fully  four  millions ;  and,  no  doubt, 
this  lavish  expenditure  materially  contributed  to  bring 
about  Ismail's  financial  collapse  and  virtual  bankruptcy 
a  few  years  later. 

Honours  of  all  kinds  were  subsequently  showered  upon 
M.  de  Lesseps,  who  was  eulogised  by  the  press  of  Europe 
as  a  benefactor  to  mankind,  ennobled  by  his  grateful 
sovereign,  and  made  the  recipient  of  decorations  and 
orders  from  most  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe.  Finally, 
to  crown  all,  a  place  was  found  for  the  national  hero 
among  the  "  Immortal  Forty."  Nor  was  England  behind- 
hand in  making  up  for  its  former  neglect,  and  Comte  de 
Lesseps  was  created  a  K.  C.  S.  I.,  and  presented  with  the 
freedom  of  the  City  of  London. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

CAIRO   AS   A   RESORT   FOR   INVALIDS. 

CAIRO  itself  cannot  be  unreservedly  recommended  as 
a  health-resort  pure  and  simple.  The  Egyptian  cli- 
mate is  undeniably  admirably  suited  for  a  winter  residence, 
and  in  most  respects  it  is  superior  to  that  of  any  health- 
resort  in  the  south  of  France,  —  the  world's  great  winter 
sanatorium.  But  the  city  of  Cairo  possesses  too  many 
factitious  drawbacks,  which  militate  against  its  use  as  a 
climatic  health-station.  Now  that  other  health-resorts, 
such  as  Luxor,  Assouan,  Helouan,  etc.,  are  getting  better 
known  and  developed,  medical  men  are  beginning  to  realise 
that,  hygienically  speaking,  Cairo  is  not  Egypt.  Its  enor- 
mous population  and  limited  area,  for  one  thing,  does  not 
commend  it  to  medical  men  as  a  winter  residence  for  their 
patients.  An  overcrowded  city  of  nearly  half  a  million 
inhabitants,  with  its  unsatisfactory  hygienic  conditions  and 
appallingly  primitive  and  unsanitary  system  of  drainage,  — 
if  system  it  can  be  called,  —  the  annual  summer  visitation 
of  cholera,  etc.,  seems,  indeed,  the  last  place  to  which  the 
health-seeker,  as  distinct  from  the  mere  tourist  or  pleasure- 
seeker,  should  be  sent.  It  is  true  that  the  sanitation  of  the 
Continental,  Shepheards,  Ghezireh  Palace,  and  other  fashion- 
able hotels  is  beyond  reproach,  but  the  visitor  is  not  likely 
to  spend  all  his  time  in  the  hotel.  Besides,  the  innumer- 
able urban  amusements  and  social  gaieties  and  dissipations 

114 


/ 


CAIRO    AS    A   RESORT    FOR   INVALIDS.  115 

of  this  fashionable  winter-city  offer  too  many  temptations 
to  the  invalid  to  neglect  his  health. 

Twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  no  doubt,  the  invalid  had  no 
choice  :  a  winter  in  Egypt  necessarily  meant  spending  that 
season  in  Cairo.  But  now,  thanks  mainly  to  the  enterprise 
of  the  great  tourist-agents,  Luxor,  Assouan,  and  the  Nile 
have  been  rendered  available  for  serious  invalids.  The 
above  remarks  apply,  of  course,  to  the  genuine  invalid,  as 
distinct  from  the  large  class  of  valetudinarians  or  quasi- 
invalids.  For  this  class  of  visitors,  and  especially  over- 
worked persons  and  those  suffering  from  worry  and  "  nerves," 
who  require  mainly  change  of  scene  and  rest,  Cairo,  with 
its  innumerable  resources  and  varied  interests,  is  an  ideal 
wintering-place.  The  above-mentioned  objections  to  Cairo 
in  the  case  of  real  invalids  apply,  however,  to  those  contem- 
plating spending  the  whole  winter  in  the  city,  and  not 
merely  a  few  weeks.  In  many  cases  a  whole  winter  on 
the  Nile  would  be  found  monotonous,  so  the  best  disposal 
of  time  would  be  to  spend  the  early  winter  months  at 
Luxor  or  on  a  Nile  voyage,  and  postpone  the  return  to 
Cairo  till  the  beginning  of  February.  November,  Decem- 
ber, and  January  are  the  least  suitable  months  for  Cairo, 
owing  to  the  risk  of  malaria  from  the  moisture  arising 
from  the  subsiding  inundation  of  the  Nile.  Then,  when 
Cairo  gets  too  hot,  Ramleh,  near  Alexandria,  will  be  found 
an  excellent  intermediate  health-resort  for  a  few  weeks 
before  leaving  Egypt. 

Helouan-les-Bains,  within  half  an  hour  of  Cairo  by  train, 
or  Mena  House,  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyramids,  would,  how- 
ever, be  a  better  residence  than  Cairo  itself.  Helouan 
is,  in  fact,  the  oldest  health-resort  in  the  world.  There 
are  about  a  dozen  sulphur  springs  similar  to  those  of  Aix- 
les-Bains,  but  rather  stronger.  Those  who  have  under- 
gone a  course  at  Aix  can  continue  their  "  cure "  here 
during  the  winter  and  spring,  when  the  Aix  establishment 


116  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

is  closed.  The  atmosphere  is  remarkably  pure  and  salu- 
brious, and  the  electrical  tonic  influence  of  the  desert 
climate  is  felt  here  to  a  striking  degree.  There  are  good 
hotels  here,  two  resident  doctors,  and  several  pensions. 
The  Administration  have  shown  themselves  thoroughly 
alive  to  the  requirements  of  modern  tourists  by  providing 
lawn-tennis  courts,  laying  down  golf  links,  etc.  The  chief 
drawback  is  that,  at  present,  the  English  and  American 
guests  are  rather  swamped  by  the  Teutonic  element,  the 
baths  belonging  to  a  German  directorate. 

Another  resort,  which  is  strongly  recommended  by  Dr. 
F.  M.  Sand  with.  Dr.  Hermann  Weber,  and  other  eminent 
climatologists,  is  Mena  House,  at  the  Pyramids.  Its  advan- 
tages are  thus  summed  up  by  Dr.  Sandwith: 

"  Life  at  the  large  hotel  here,  numbering  some  120  bedrooms,  is 
for  those  who  wish  for  purer  air  than  that  of  crowded  Cairo,  but 
who  desire  to  be  within  driving  distance  of  their  friends,  and  who 
dread  the  somewhat  sombre  monotony  of  Helouan.  The  Sphinx 
and  the  Pyramids,  besides  many  attractions  of  their  own,  insure  a 
constant  stream  of  visitors  during  the  winter  months.  The  air  at 
both  suburbs  is  probably  equally  pure  and  equally  dry.  For  the 
comfort  of  the  guests,  there  are  provided  a  resident  English  doctor 
and  chaplain,  a  chapel,  a  noble  dining-room  for  250  people,  European 
chambermaids,  swimming  bath,  excellent  conservancy  arrangements, 
drinking  water  from  a  special  well  in  the  desert,  steam  laundry,  a 
stringed  band,  books  and  magazines,  billiard-tables,  and  photograph- 
rooms.  There  are  desert-carts  for  driving,  horses  and  camels  for 
riding,  occasional  races,  golf  and  lawn-tennis,  and  capital  shooting 
from  November  to  April.  The  climate  of  Helouan  and  the  Pyra- 
mids is  much  the  same  as  in  Cairo,  except  that  the  air  is  fresher, 
purer,  and  drier." 

Whole  volumes  have  been  written  by  meteorologists  and 
medical  experts  on  the  climatology  of  Egypt,  but  its  chief 
characteristics  can  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words :  a  remark- 
ably pure  and  salubrious  atmosphere,  almost  continuous 
sunshine,  rainlessness  (the  rainfall  of  the  Upper  Nile  Val- 


CAIRO   AS   A   RESORT    FOR   INVALIDS.  117 

ley  is  practically  m7),  genial  warmth  (which,  owing  to 
its  lack  of  moisture,  is  not  oppressive),  and  highly  tonic 
qualities;  but,  to  counterbalance  these  good  points,  great 
lack^ofequability.  The  great  difference  between  day  and 
night  temperature  is,  no  doubt,  a  very  serious  drawback. 
This  lack  of  uniformity  is,  of  course,  inevitable  in  all  coun- 
tries where  a  high  temperature  and  immunity  from  rain 
are  combined.  In  short,  it  is  a  meteorological  axiom  that 
equability  cannot  exist  with  a  very  dry  atmosphere  and  a 
high  temperature.  Equability  implies^  of  course,  a  certain 
amount  of  humidity.  An  ideal  climate  would  combine  the 
equability  and  softness  of  Madeira,  the  warmth  and  dryness 
of  Upper  Egypt,  and  the  chemically  pure  atmosphere  of 
Biskra  in  Algeria. 

The  following  summary  of  the  climatic  conditions  of 
Cairo,  by  Dr.  F.  M.  Sand  with,  prepared  for  my  work  on 
the  health  resorts  of  South  Europe  and  North  Africa 
(3d  ed.,  1896),  may  be  conveniently  inserted  here: 

"  To  save  space,  it  is  only  necessary  here  to  consider  the  seven  win- 
ter months  from  November  1  to  May  31.  The  barometer  seldom 
varies,  though  there  is  a  steady  fall  from  29.99  in  December  to  29.82 
in  April.  Rain  amounts  to  one  inch  and  a  quarter,  the  number  of 
days  upon  which  drops  or  showers  fall  being  about  fifteen.  Clouds 
during  January  and  February  reach  a  maximum  of  4  upon  a  scale 
from  0-10.  The  prevalent  wind  is  from  the  north  or  northwest, 
and  is  never  sufficiently  fierce  to  keep  patients  within  doors.  The 
Khamseen  blows  from  the  southwest  desert  during  March  and 
April,  seldom  for  more  than  two  days  in  a  week.  It  is  impleasantly 
hot  and  dusty  while  it  lasts,  and  drives  many  visitors  away  from 
Cairo.  The  following  table,  drawn  up  from  my  own  observations, 
shows  the  temperatures  to  which  patients  may  be  exposed.  It  is 
based  on  the  principle  that  a  sick  man  need  not  concern  himself 
with  the  minimum  outdoor  temperature  of  a  place,  for  that  is  always 
at  an  hour  when  he  ought  to  be  safe  in  bed.  The  vital  information 
for  him  is  the  average  maximum  shade  temperature  out  of  doors, 
together  with  the  average  minimum  bedroom  heat,  and  the  daily 
range  between  them.   It  will  be  noticed  that  there  is  no  very  serious 


118 


THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 


range  until  the  hot  weather  begins.  My  bedroom  records  have  pur- 
posely been  taken  in  a  north  room  with  door  wide  open,  never  visited 
by  the  sun,  unoccupied  at  night,  and  unwarmed  by  artificial  light. 
This,  therefore,  gives  the  greatest  cold  to  which  a  patient  can  be 
subjected,  unless  he  opens  his  bedroom  windows.  A  prudent  in- 
valid would,  of  course,  eschew  a  north  room,  and  would  warm  the 
air  by  lamp  or  candles  on  going  to  bed.  Thus  he  would  raise'  my 
minimum  results  some  four  degrees,  and  reduce  the  range  of  tem- 
perature considerably.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  my  minimum 
results,  within  two  or  three  degrees,  correspond  with  the  mean  tem- 
perature of  the  month.  During  April  and  May  it  is,  of  course,  easy 
to  refrain  from  going  out  at  the  hottest  time  of  the  day.  Thus  it  is 
evident  that  patients  can  spend  six  months  in  Cairo  in  a  temperature 
which  need  only  vary  from  63°  to  80°. 

"  The  shortest  days  in  December  give  us  ten  hours  daylight,  or 
three  hours  longer  than  in  England." 


Temperature,  Fahr. 

Rain. 

Khamseen 

Maximum 

in 

Shade. 

Minimum 

in 
Bedroom. 

Wind. 

deg. 

deg. 

November  .... 

75 

. 

December    .     .     .     , 

69 

60 

4  days 

.  .  . 

January  

February     .... 

67.4 
68.3 

59.8 
59.7 

(  Showers  ) 
\    4  days    J 
(  Showers  ) 
\    2  days    ( 

2  days 

March 

76 

63.2 

j    Drops    ) 
1     1  day     J 

3  days 

April 

84.5 

67.6 

(    Drops    ) 
\    2  days    f 

7.5  days 

May 

91.7 

72 

5.5  days 

The  mere  fact,  that,  for  one  absolutely  cloudless  win- 
ter day  in  the  British  Islands  —  even  in  the  sunniest  region 
of  the  South  Coast — there  are  ten  or  a  dozen  in  Upper 
Egypt,  means  more,  however,  to  the  non-scientific  reader 
than  whole  columns  of  meteorological  readings  and  cli- 


CAIRO   AS   A   RESORT    FOR   INVALIDS.  119 

matic  statistics.  In  short,  the  Upper  Nile  boasts  of  the 
most  wonderful  and  salubri^jiajiuaate  of  anj,  knawn  jain- 
ter  resort  in  the  world  available  to  phthisical  patients. 
There  is,  of  course,  no  ideal  climate  on  the  surface  of  the 
globe, — no  hygienic  Utopia  where  "the  consumptive  can 
draw  in  healing  influence  with  every  breath;"  but  the 
climate  of  Upper  Egypt  is  the  nearest  approach,  within  ten 
days  of  London,  to  Tennyson's  legendary  land  of  Avilion, 

«  Where  falls  not  rain,  or  hail,  or  any  snow, 
Nor  ever  wind  blows  loudly." 

Though  the  weather  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  the 
Englishman's  staple  topic  of  conversation,  the  ignorance 
of  the  veriest  a,  b,  c  of  meteorology  found  among  ordina- 
rily well-informed  and  observant  travellers  is  extraordinary. 
In  Egyptian  books  of  travel  and  magazine  articles  one  occa- 
sionally finds  the  very  quality  in  which  the  climate  of  Egypt 
is  so  deficient  —  equability  of  temperature  —  singled  out, 
along  with  its  undeniable  dryness,  for  special  praise. 

Messrs.  Hermann  Weber,  Burden  Saunderson,  F.  M. 
Sandwith,  and  other  physicians  who  have  devoted  consid- 
erable attention  to  the  hygienic  and  climatological  aspects 
of  Egypt  are  agreed  that  Egypt  is  particularly  suitable  for 
most  forms  of  lung  disease,  for  incipient  pulmonary  con- 
sumption, chronic  bronchitis,  asthma,  anaemia,  chronic 
rheumatism,  and,  speaking  generally,  convalescents  from 
acute  diseases.  But  patients  suffering  from  advanced  heart 
disease,  or,  in  short,  very  advanced  disease  of  any  organ, 
or  from  fever,  should  not  be  sent  to  Egypt.  Persons  sub- 
ject to  obstinate  insomnia  will  also  find  the  climate  un- 
suitable. 

With  regard  to  the  best  way  of  reaching  Egypt,  though 
most  travellers  arrive  by  way  of  Port  Said  or  Ismailia,  this 
route  is  less  preferable  than  via  Alexandria  for  those  who 
are  wintering  abroad  for  their  health.     The  Egyptian  tour- 


120  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

ist  traffic  is  of  slight  importance  compared  with  that  of 
India  and  Australia,  in  the  eyes  of  the  directors  of  the  great 
liners ;  and  passengers  who  have  rashly  decided  to  disem- 
bark for  Cairo  at  Ismailia  often  find  themselves  landed  at 
this  half-way  house  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  with  no 
means  of  reaching  the  capital  till  the  next  day.  What  is 
merely  a  passing  inconvenience  to  the  robust  traveller  might 
naturally  be  a  serious  matter  for  the  invalid.  The  light 
railway  which  now  runs  from  Port  Said  to  Ismailia  can,  no 
doubt,  be  made  use  of  if  the  steamer  arrives  early  in  the 
day  at  Port  Said ;  but  the  service  is  slow  and  infrequent. 
Though  dignified  by  the  name  of  railway,  it  is  little  more 
than  a  miniature  steam  tramway  with  a  gauge  of  no  more 
than  two  feet  six  inches.  What  is  wanted  is  a  railway 
from  Port  Said  to  Damietta,  only  forty  miles  west,  whence 
there  is  direct  railway  communication  to  Cairo  and  Alex- 
andria. There  are  no  physical  difficulties  in  the  construc- 
tion of  this  much-needed  railway.  The  real  difficulty  is 
the  jealous  opposition  of  Alexandria.  Then,  too,  the 
Egyptian  Government  is  not  inclined  to  regard  the  scheme 
favourably,  as  the  increased  harbour  dues  would  fall  into 
the  coffers  of  the  Suez  Canal  Company,  and  not  into  the 
Government  treasury.  The  fact  remains,  that,  as  an  ordi- 
nary commercial  harbour.  Port  Said  is  of  trifling  import- 
ance. It  is  mainly  an  international  port  and  coaling  station. 
Though  Alexandria  should  be  the  port  of  arrival  for  deli- 
cate persons,  unfortunately  the  great  passenger  steamship 
companies,  such  as  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental,  Orient, 
and  North  German  Lloyd,  make  Port  Said  and  not  Alex- 
andria, their  port  of  call  in  their  through  services.  Since 
1895,  however,  an  Egyptian  service  via  Constantinople  and 
Alexandria  has  been  established  by  the  Sleeping  Car  Com- 
pany, in  connection  with  the  weekly  Orient  express.  By 
this  service,  Alexandria  can  be  reached  from  London,  via 
Ostend,  in  five  and  a  half  days,  with  only  one  change  he- 


CAIRO   AS   A   RESORT    FOR   INVALIDS.  121 

tween  Ostend  and  Alexandria.  But  this  route  is  only  for 
those  to  whom  expense  is  no  object,  costing,  with  extras, 
about  thirty  pounds.  Health  seekers  of  moderate  means 
would  have  to  be  content  with  the  services  of  the  Message- 
ries  Maritimes,  the  Austrian  Lloyd,  or  the  Italian  Naviga- 
tion Company,  sailing  from  Marseilles,  Trieste,  and  Genoa, 
respectively. 


J 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CAIRO   IN   ITS   SOCIAL   ASPECT. 

IN  some  respects,  so  far  as  concerns  the  permanent  resi- 
dents as  distinct  from  the  mere  hivernants^  —  to  use  a 
convenient  gallicism  to  describe  those  dwellers  in  Northern 
climes  who  winter  in  the  South,  for  which  we  have  no  exact 
equivalent,  —  Cairo  society  resembles  that  of  Simla,  Naini 
Tal,  and  other  fashionable  haunts  of  Indian  society,  so 
large  is  the  infusion- of  the  official  and  military  element. 
For  society  here  has  a  decidedly  official  tone,  and  intro- 
ductions are  advisable  if  English  or  American  visitors  wish 
to  take  part  in  the  social  life  of  the  place,  with  its  innu- 
merable gaieties  and  entertainments  of  all  kinds,  —  from 
moonlight  donkey-rides  to  the  Pyramids,  to  bicycle  gym- 
khanas at  Ghezireh,  and  fancy-dress  balls  at  Shepheard's 
and  the  Continental.  In  Cairo,  however,  the  visitors  at 
the  principal  hotels  form  a  society  of  their  own. 

The  hotel  element,  too,  in  Cairo  is  a  factor  of  greater 
importance  in  the  social  life  of  the  foreign  community 
(for  the  obvious  fact  that  the  Anglo-American  winter  colony 
are  foreigners  is  too  often  ignored)  than  at  Cannes,  Monte 
Carlo,  Beaulieu,  Pau,  Algiers,  Florence,  and  other  fashion- 
able winter  resorts,  partly  because  the  class  of  visitors  who 
at  these  stations  would  be  inclined  to  live  haughtily  aloof 
from  the  cosmopolitan  crowd  who  throng  the  hotels  in 
isolated  villas,  at  Cairo  frequent  the  fashionable  hotels. 
Villas,  indeed,  at  Cairo  are  so  scarce  as  to  be  practically 
unobtainable,  as  the  only  available  ones  are,  as  a  rule, 

122 


CAIRO   IN   ITS    SOCIAL    ASPECT.  123 

occupied  by  the  families  of  the  corps  diplomatique,  English 
officers  stationed  at  Cairo,  high  government  officials,  etc. 
In  Egypt,  indeed,  the  aristocratic  dahabiyah  may  almost 
be  said  to  take  the  place  of  the  villa. 

In  a  sketch,  then,  of  fashionable  Cairo  in  the  nineties, 
more  prominence  must  be  given  to  the  hotels  than  would 
be  necessary  in  most  foreign  watering-places.  The  most 
fashionable  are,  undoubtedly,  the  Continental,  Shepheard's, 
and  Ghezireh  Palace,  whose  visitors'  lists  almost  suggest  a 
page  out  of  the  "  Almanac  de  Gotha."  Yet,  as  regards  the 
clientele,  each  has  a  distinct  character  of  its  own ;  and  if  I 
may  attempt  a  somewhat  invidious  task,  I  should  be  in- 
clined to  say  that  the  Continental  is  more  peculiarly 
exclusive  and  aristocratic,  while  Shepheard's  is  smarter, 
and  the  note  of  modernity  here  is  more  insistent.  As  for 
the  Ghezireh  Palace  Hotel,  it  is  of  too  recent  date  to  have 
acquired  any  distinct  social  characteristics.  The  salient 
features  of  these  establishments  may,  perhaps,  be  better 
understood  by  comparison  with  London  hotels.  The  Con- 
tinental, then,  may  be  compared  with  the  Alexandra  or  the 
Albemarle,  Shepheard's  with  the  Savoy,  and  the  Ghezireh 
Palace  with  the  Cecil. 

The  leading  hotels  of  Cairo  can  certainly  compare 
favourably  with  the  best  hotels  of  the  most  fashionable 
Riviera  watering-places.  Leaving  the  United  States  out 
of  the  question,  it  is,  perhaps,  hardly  going  too  far  to 
say  that  no  extra-European  city  of  the  same  size  offers 
such  a  wide  choice  of  high-class  and  well-appointed  hotels, 
so  well  adapted  to  meet  the  demands  of  English  travellers, 
as  the  City  of  the  Caliphs. 

The  historical  Shepheard's  has  a  world-wide  reputation. 
It  must,  however,  be  remembered  that  not  a  stone  remains 
of  the  old  Shepheard's,  with  its  world-renowned  balcony, 
its  garden  containing  the  tree  under  which  General  Kleber 
was  assassinated,  its  lofty  rooms,  and  terraces.      The  new 


J 


124  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Shepheard's,  completely  rebuilt  in  1891,  lacks  these  his- 
torical adjuncts;  but  the  high  reputation  for  comfort  re- 
mains, and  certainly,  in  point  of  luxury  and  refinements  of 
civilisation,  in  the  form  of  electric  lights,  lifts,  telephones, 
etc.,  there  can  be  no  comparison.  No  doubt  there  was  a 
touch  of  Oriental  romance,  and  a  suggestion  of  the  "  Thou- 
sand and  One  Nights  "  in  the  time-honoured  practice  which 
formerly  obtained  at  Shepheard's,  of  summoning  the  dusky 
attendants  by  clapping  the  hands ;  but  to  the  matter-of-fact 
latter-day  traveller  the  prosaic,  but  reliable,  electric  bell  is 
an  infinitely  preferable  means  of  communication. 

Shepheard's  is  ^ar  excellence  the  American  hotel,  while 
the  Continental  is  more  exclusively  English.  The  latter, 
too,  partakes  more  of  the  character  of  a  high-class  residen- 
tial hotel,  its  numerous  elegantly  appointed  suites  of  private 
apartments  (some  twenty  sets)  being  one  of  its  leading 
features. 

Shepheard's  clientile  is  distinctly  cosmopolitan.  Cairo 
being  the  starting-point  for  the  Desert,  the  Nile,  and  Pal- 
estine, and  not  far  off  the  highroad  to  India  and  Australia, 
and  also  being  one  of  those  cities  which  no  self-respecting 
globe-trotter  can  afford  to  omit  in  his  round,  it  is  much 
visited  by  passing  travellers.  Those  purposing  to  spend 
the  whole  season  in  Cairo  would  be  more  likely  to  go  to 
the  Continental.  Perhaps  the  great  objection  to  Shep- 
heard's lies  in  its  situation.  It  is  undoubtedly  very  central 
and  easy  of  access,  but,  fronting  the  main  road,  it  is  un- 
pleasantly noisy  and  dusty.  In  the  old  days  there  were  no 
doubt  compensations  in  the  moving  panorama  of  Oriental 
life  which  this  crowded  thoroughfare  presented,  —  a  kalei- 
dosocopic  procession  of  Bedouin  Arabs  from  the  Desert, 
camels,  tattooed  negroes,  Turks,  jewelled  pachas  ambling 
past  on  richly  caparisoned  mules,  mysterious  veiled  figures, 
and  other  fascinating  aspects  of  Eastern  life,  with  a  very 
slight  admixture  of  the  vulgarising  (artistically  speaking) 


CAIRO   IK   ITS    SOCIAL   ASPECT.  125 

European  element.  Now,  instead  of  these  picturesque, 
motley  crowds,  the  modern  lounger  on  the  famous  terraces 
looks  down  upon  a  yelling  crowd  of  donkey  boys,  guides, 
porters,  interpreters,  dragomans,  itinerant  dealers  in  sham 
antiques,  and  all  the  noisy  rabble  that  live  on  the  travel- 
ling Briton. 

The  Continental  Hotel  is  comparatively  new,  while  the 
New  Hotel  is  one  of  the  oldest  hotels  in  Cairo ;  but  this 
instance  of  erratic  hotel  nomenclature  is  not  confined  to 
Egypt.  The  Continental  is  most  sumptuously  decorated, 
and  the  appointments  are,  perhaps,  as  luxurious  as  those 
of  the  leading  hotels  at  the  fashionable  watering-places  on 
the  opposite  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  Special  mention 
should  be  made  of  the  excellence  of  its  sanitary  arrange- 
ments. It  is  situated  in  a  quiet  part  of  the  fashionable 
Ezbekiya  quarter,  near  the  English  church,  and  it  is  a 
little  out  of  the  way  compared  with  Shepheard's  and  the 
New  Hotel ;  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  this  comparative 
remoteness  of  its  locality  is  regarded  as  an  additional  rec- 
ommendation by  many  of  its  patrons. 

The  Ghezireh  Palace,  the  newest  of  the  Cairo  hotels,  for- 
merly known  as  "  Ismail's  Folly,"  was  one  of  the  palaces 
of  the  late  Khedive  Ismail,  whose  mania  for  building  pal- 
aces was  as  pronounced  as  that  of  the  unfortunate  King  of 
Bavaria.  It  was  bought  by  a  syndicate  from  the  creditors 
of  the  late  ex-Khedive,  and  is  now  one  of  the  International 
Palace  Hotels  —  a  commercial  enterprise  which  is  a  wor- 
thy rival  of  the  Gordon  Hotels  ring  —  belonging  to  the 
International  Sleeping  Car  Co.  It  rivals  the  Continental 
or  Shepheard's  in  the  costliness  of  its  decoration  and  the 
luxury  of  its  appointments.  From  a  medical  point  of  view, 
its  strong  points  are  its  delightfully  rural  and  at  the  same 
time  readily  accessible  situation,  and  its  sheltered  position, 
which  effectually  protects  visitors  from  the  occasional 
Khamseen  winds,  —  rare,  no  doubt,  but  still  to  be  reckoned 


126  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

with  during  the  Cairo  season.  The  chief  drawback  to  this 
ambitious  establishment  is  the  presence  of  mosquitoes  in 
the  beginning  of  the  season,  owing  to  the  proximity  of  the 
Nile.  This  tends  to  make  the  commencement  of  the  sea- 
son at  this  hotel  somewhat  later  than  at  the  intra-mural 
hotels.  As  regards  its  visitors,  the  Ghezireh  Palace  is 
rather  more  cosmopolitan  in  character  than  the  Continen- 
tal, or  even  Shepheard's. 

Certainly  there  is  room  for  an  extra-mural  hotel  at 
Cairo,  with  its  swarms  of  invalids  increasing  year  by  year, 
who  invade  Egypt  for  the  winter ;  and  it  should  appeal  not 
only  to  this  numerically  important  class,  but  also  to  sports- 
men, owing  to  its  vicinity  to  the  race-course  and  the  Sport- 
ing Club  grounds. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  three  leading  Cairo  hotels.  We 
now  come  to  another  first-class  hotel.  The  New  Hotel 
was  the  favourite  caravanserai  of  the  ex-Khedive  Ismail, 
and  it  occupies  by  far  the  best  situation  of  any  in  Cairo, 
facing  the  Grand  Opera  House.  It  has  had  vicissitudes, 
but  has  recovered  and  stood  the  test  of  time ;  and  not  being 
so  popular  as  Shepheard's  and  the  Continental,  which  are 
often  overcrowded  in  the  height  of  the  season,  it  might  be 
preferred  by  invalids  and  those  in  need  of  rest  and  quiet- 
ness. Its  numerous  sets  of  upper  rooms,  each  furnished 
with  an  alcoved  balcony,  might  also  recommend  it  to  this 
class  of  visitors. 

Mena  House,  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyramids,  is  a  large  and 
expensive  establishment,  which  has  found  favour  with  our 
compatriots.  No  doubt  those  with  the  artistic  sense  highly 
developed  will  enlarge  on  the  enormity  of  building  a  huge 
modern  hotel  in  the  midst  of  such  incongruous  surround- 
ings, in  the  close  vicinity  of  the  immortal  Pyramids  and 
the  mystic  Sphinx ;  but  it  must  be  admitted,  if  I  may  be 
allowed  to  act  as  advocatus  diaholi,  that  if  the  Pyramids 
had  to  be  vulgarised,  they  could  not  have  been  vulgarised 


CAIRO   m   ITS    SOCIAL   ASPECT.  127 

better  (or  less)  by  the  English  capitalist  who  is  responsible 
for  the  undertaking.  The  origin  of  Mena  House  (called 
from  Menes,  the  quasi-mythical  earliest  king  of  Egypt)  is 
curious.  Some  seven  years  ago  an  Englishman  in  delicate 
health  came  to  Egypt.  He  built  a  tiny  house  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Pyramids.  Finding  the  air  beneficial,  he 
began  to  erect  a  small  sanatorium,  hoping  that  invalids 
like  himself  might  resort  there,  and  gain  a  longer  lease  of 
life.  But  before  the  plan  was  matured  he  died.  Then  Mr. 
Locke-King  bought  the  property,  and  determined  to  start 
a  hotel.  The  undertaking  grew  under  his  hands,  and  now 
Mena  House  may  be  considered  to  rank  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing hotels  in  Egypt.  Mr.  Locke-King,  however,  no  longer 
owns  the  Mena  House,  having  transferred  his  interest 
therein  to  an  English  syndicate.  It  is  well  spoken  of,  and 
the  rooms  are  furnished  in  good  taste.  It  is  well  appointed, 
and  is  furnished  with  a  large  swimming-bath,  English  bil- 
liard-table, library,  etc.  Golf  links  are  also  duly  adver- 
tised among  its  numerous  attractions  for  visitors,  though 
considering  the  general  lay  of  the  desert  surrounding  the 
Pyramids,  "  sporting  bunkers  "  must  be  too  plentiful  even 
for  the  most  determined  devotee  of  the  "  royal  and  ancient 
game,''  and  the  laying  out  of  anything  approaching  to  a 
putting-green  must  have  presented  almost  insuperable  diffi- 
culties.    There  is  a  resident  chaplain  and  physician. 

The  Hotel  d'Angleterre  is  a  favourite  resort  of  English 
and  Americans.  It  is  a  particularly  comfortable  and  well- 
managed  house,  and  is  under  the  same  proprietorship  as  the 
Continental.  It  has  recently  been  rebuilt,  and  is  furnished 
with  all  modern  conveniences,  —  lift,  electric  light,  etc. ; 
in  fact,  it  is  a  second  Continental  on  a  more  modest  scale, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  a  suecursale  or  dependayice  of  the 
parent  establishment. 

The  Hotel  Royal  may  be  said  to  have  some  claims  on 
the  gratitude  of  Englishmen.    During  Arabi's  rebellion,  all 


128  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

the  hotel  keepers,  save  the  landlord  of  the  Royal,  decamped. 
Thus,  after  the  victorious  campaign,  the  English  officers 
would  have  fared  badly  had  not  the  doors  of  the  Royal 
been  open  to  them.  This  hotel  has  a  good  reputation  for 
its  cuisine  and  moderate  charges.  There  remains  the  well- 
known  old  established  Hotel  du  Nil,  handicapped  a  little, 
however,  by  its  situation  close  to  the  malodorous  street 
known  as  the  Muski.  This  hotel,  well-known  to  scholars, 
literary  men,  and  Egyptologists,  boasts  of  a  famous  gar- 
den, one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  striking  in  Cairo.  In 
the  opinion  of  many  of  its  guests,  this  lovely  pleasure- 
ground,  which  shuts  off  all  noises  from  the  crowded  streets, 
quite  compensates  for  its  proximity  to  the  native  quarter. 

So  much  for  Cairo  as  a  great  hotel  centre. 

The  City»fli..YiQtfi]CJ^Js,  no  doubt,  a  many-sided  city,  and 
might  be  described  under  many  aspects  did  space  permit. 
It  is  a  famous  historical  .£iity,  an  official  capital  and  seat  of 
government,  an  important  garrison  town,  and  a  great  Ori- 
ental metropolis,  —  in  population  the  second  city  in  the 
Turkish  Empire.  But  by  most  visitors  it  is  regarded 
merely  as  a  fashionable  health  and  pleasure  resort,  and  it 
is  with  Cairo  in  its  social  aspect  that  we  are  in  this  chapter 
mainly  concerned. 

Its  vogue  as  an  aristocratic  winter  residence  for  Euro- 
peans may  be  said  to  date  from  the  opening  of  the  Suez 
Canal  in  1869,  when  Cairo  was  boomed,  to  use  a  modern 
phrase,  by  the  Khedive  Ismail  for  all  it  was  worth.  This 
prodigal  ruler  spent  literally  millions  in  his  effort  to  make 
known  to  Europeans  the  attractions  and  potentialities  of 
his  semi-Oriental  capital.  Yet  compare  Cairo  of  to-day 
as  a  fashionable  tourist  -  centre  with  Cairo  of  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  ago.  Then  the  unfinished  European 
quarter  had  the  appearance  of  a  hastily  run-up  suburb.  It 
was  thought  a  wonderful  achievement  to  light  the  Ezbe- 
kiya  quarter  with  gas.     Now  many  of  the  streets,  and  all 


CAIRO   IN   ITS    SOCIAL   ASPECT.  129 

the  large  hotels,  are  lit  with  electricity,  and  electric  tram- 
cars  run  through  the  main  thoroughfares.  It  is  even 
proposed  to  drain  the  picturesque  but  highly  insalubrious 
and  malodorous  Khalig  Canal,  which  runs  through  the 
heart  of  the  city  from  Old  Cairo  to  Abbasieh,  and  lay  an 
electric  tramway  along  its  bed.  No  doubt  aesthetic 
tourists  will  rave  at  this  utilitarian  and  vandalistic  trans- 
formation, but  the  more  thoughtful  will  not  regret  that 
what  is  virtually  an  open  sewer  should  be  converted  into  a 
broad  highway  calculated  to  benefit  the  teeming  Cairene 
population.  The  Egyptians,  it  may  be  remarked,  take 
very  kindly  to  the  new  method  of  locomotion,  —  so  much 
so  that  in  the  electric  trams  already  running,  Europeans 
are  quite  crowded  out  by  natives. 

Visitors  to  Cairo  may  be  roughly  divided  into  three 
classes,  —  sightseers  and  tourists ;  winter  residents  and  so- 
ciety people  generally,  akin  to  the  fashionable  crowds  who 
gravitate  annually  to  Cannes,  Monte  Carlo,  Mentone,  and 
other  Eiviera  towns ;  and  invalids,  —  the  latter  class,  how- 
ever, less  numerous  in  Cairo  itself  than  formerly.  To 
these  may  be  added  a  leaven  of  artists,  literary  people, 
Egyptologists,  students,  etc. 

The  first  class  is  numerically  of  most  importance ;  but 
tourists,  as  a  rule,  have  little  time,  and  probably  less  incli- 
nation, for  taking  part  in  the  social  life  of  the  Anglo-Amer- 
ican colony,  and  are  not  ambitious  of  being  thought  to  be 
"  in  the  movement."  The  winter  residents,  along  with  the 
official  community,  —  English  officers  attached  to  the  army 
of  occupation  and  the  Egyptian  army,  government  officials 
and  their  families,  etc.,  —  form  the  Anglo-American  col- 
ony. Cairo  is  indeed  emphatically  a  society  place,  and, 
of  late  years  especially,  as  an  aristocratic  winter-resort  it 
ranks  with  Cannes  or  Monte  Carlo.  Perhaps  the  tone  of 
society  more  nearly  resembles  Nice  or  Monte  Carlo  than 
the  ultra-aristocratic  and  exclusive  Cannes,  smartness  being 


130  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  prevalent  note  of  its  winter  residents.  From  January 
to  April  there  is  one  unceasing  round  of  balls,  dinner  par- 
ties, picnics,  gymkhanas,  and  other  social  functions. 

Intelligent  sightseeing  or  the  study  of  Egyptian  anti- 
quities is,  no  doubt,  apt  to  be  undertaken  in  a  decidedly 
perfunctory  manner  by  the  winter  residents.  The  Necrop- 
olis of  Memphis,  for  instance,  is  regarded  mainly  as  a 
convenient  site  for  a  picnic,  and  the  Pyramids  or  Heliopolis 
as  a  goal  for  a  bicycling  or  riding  excursion.  Bicycling  is 
now  a  particularly  popular  amusement  in  the  City  of  the 
Caliphs ;  and  the  sight  of  an  American  or  English  girl 
bicycling  down  the  Mooski,  preceded  by  a  running  footman 
(syce)  to  clear  the  way,  may  perhaps  provoke  a  smile  from 
her  compatriots  at  the  startling  incongruity.  This  is  only 
one  instance,  however,  of  the  strange  contrasts  between 
the  latest  development  of  European  civilisation  and  fash- 
ionable culture  and  the  old-world  Orientalism  so  constantly 
seen  in  Cairo  of  to-day. 

After  all,  in  the  Cairo  season  "  distractions  "  and  social 
dissipations  of  all  kinds,  not  to  speak  of  the  ordinary  urban 
amusements  in  the  form  of  concerts,  theatres,  and  prome- 
nades, follow  so  unceasingly  that  there  is  some  excuse  for 
the  neglect  of  the  regulation  sights  and  antiquities.  When 
it  is  the  case  of  a  bicycle  gymkhana,  a  polo  match  at  the 
Turf  Club  ground,  or  a  lawn-tennis  tournament  at  the 
Ghezireh  Palace,  or  a  visit  to  a  gloomy  old  temple,  it  is 
perhaps  only  natural  with  young  people  that  the  ancient 
monuments  should  go  to  the  wall. 

The  official  balls  and  receptions  at  the  Khedivial  Palace 
or  the  British  Agency  are  functions  which  demand  more 
than  an  incidental  notice.  The  British  Agent  gives  at 
least  a  couple  of  large  balls  during  the  season,  and  the 
same  hospitality  is  offered  by  the  Khedive.  In  addition  to 
these  official  entertainments,  several  important  semi- 
official dances  are  given  by  the  British  officers  quartered 


CAIKO   IN   ITS    SOCIAL   ASPECT.  131 

at  Cairo.  The  invitations  to  the  Khedive's  ball  are  in- 
variably sent  to  the  foreign  visitors  through  their  Ministers 
or  Consuls ;  and  as  everybody  in  Cairo  seems  to  regard  a 
ticket  almost  as  a  right,  there  is  occasionally  a  certain 
amount  of  friction  between  the  accredited  representatives 
of  the  different  Powers  and  the  Khedive's  officers. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  present  Khedive,  or  the  offi- 
cers of  his  household  entrusted  with  the  delicate  task  of 
issuing  the  invitations,  always  manifest  the  possession  of 
savoir  faire  or  a  nice  sense  of  diplomacy.  According  to  a 
well-authenticated  story,  the  Khedive  once  returned  the 
United  States  Consul-General's  list  of  visitors  to  whom  he 
proposed  invitations  to  be  sent,  with  an  observation  to  the 
effect  that  only  those  of  noble  birth  were  eligible.  The  Con- 
sul promptly  replied  that  every  American  citizen  considered 
himself  a  king  in  his  own  right.  This  brought  the  auto- 
cratic Khedive  to  his  bearings,  and  not  only  was  the  list 
passed,  but  it  is  said  that  invitations  were  sent  besides  to 
all  the  guests  at  Shepheard's  Hotel  en  bloc. 

The  season  in  the  fashionable  world  is  a  short  one,  ex- 
tending from  January  to  April.  The  flight  of  the  Euro- 
pean visitors  in  this  month  is  soon  followed  by  the  exodus 
of  the  official  colony,  and  other  permanent  residents,  to 
Ramleh  and  other  summer  refuges.  The  Khedive  and  his 
court  leave  for  Alexandria  usually  about  the  beginning  of 
May,  and  this  departure  of  the  titular  sovereign  marks 
formally  the  close  of  the  Cairo  season. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   BAZAARS   AND   STREET   LIFE. 

A  VISIT  to  the  bazaars  is  one  of  the  most  instructive 
and  entertaining,  as  well  as  the  pleasantest,  forms  of 
killing  time  which  Cairo  offers  to  visitors.  But  the  great 
charm  of  this  excursion  is  lost,  if  it  is  simply  regarded  as 
one  of  the  items  in  the  day's  programme  of  sightseeing. 
The  only  way  to  appreciate  the  native  bazaars,  and  to  get 
some  insight  into  Cairo  street-life,  is  to  form  no  fixed 
plan  for  the  disposal  of  time,  and  to  make  no  itinerary,  and 
certainly  to  dispense  with  a  guide  or  dragoman.  It  is,  how- 
ever, decidedly  advisable,  before  starting,  to  get  some  idea 
of  the  confusing  topography  of  the  bazaar  quarter  from  a 
good  map.  The  boundaries  of  the  bazaar  region  can,  how- 
ever, easily  be  mastered ;  and  there  need  be  no  fear  of  losing 
one's  way,  even  in  the  apparently  inextricable  labyrinthine 
maze  of  narrow  lanes  and  alle^sjvhich  make  ujp  the  native 
quart^,  for  it  is  intersected  by  two  main  thorough'fares, 
and  has  fairly  well-marked  boundaries.  One  of  these,  gen- 
erally known  as  the  Suk-en-Nahhassin,  from  its  principal 
bazaar,  is  called  by  different  names,  according  to  the  bazaar 
which  abuts  on  it.  It  is  one  of  the  narrowest  and  oldest, 
but  most  important,  of  the  Cairo  streets,  and  extends  north 
and  south  from  the  El-Hakim  Mosque,  near  the  Bab-en- 
Nasr,  to  the  Boulevard  Mehemet  Ali,  the  modern  highway 
which  runs  direct  from  the  Ezbekiya  Square  to  the  Citadel. 
The  other  main  street  is  the  Rue  Neuve,  a  continuation  of 
the  Mooski,  and  usually  called  by  the  name  of  the  latter. 

132 


THE    BAZAARS   AND    STREET    LIFE.  133 

The  Mooski  was  the  old  Frankish  quarter  before  Ismailia 
built  the^modern  European  district,  radiating  from  the 
Ezbekiya  Square.  Some  of  the  bazaars  cluster  round 
large  covered  market-places  called  khans,  of  which  the 
Khan  Khalil  and  Khan  Ghamaliyeh  are  the  most  important. 
As  I  have  said,  the  best  way  of  exploring  the  bazaars  is  to 
have  no  prearranged  plan  or  programme.  Hurried  tourists, 
however,  who  might  naturally  consider  this  a  counsel  of  per- 
fection, will  find  that  the  most  satisfactory  and  expeditious 
method  of  doing  the  bazaars  is  to  make  the  Suk-en-Nahhas- 
sin  street  a  kind  of  movable  base,  and  proceed  northward 
or  southward  from  its  intersection  with  the  Mooski. 

The  bazaars  are  considered  by  some  travellers  to  be  less 
Oriental  in  aspect,  and  to  have  less  of  the  Eastern  atmos- 
phere and  local  colour  about  them  than  those  of  Damascus ; 
and  Baedeker  considers  them  inferior  even  to  those  of  Con- 
stantinople. 

As  in  all  Oriental  cities,  each  bazaar  is  confined,  as  a 
rule,  to  the  sale  of  one  class  of  goods,  or  products  of  a  cer- 
tain district.  There  are,  for  instance,  the  bazaars  of  the 
Soudan,  Tunis,  Red  Sea  Littoral,  Morocco,  etc. 

The  Khan  Khalil  was  built  in  1292,  by  the  famous 
Mameluke  Sultan,  El-Ashraf,  the  conqueror  of  Acre.  It  is 
on  the  site  of  the  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs.  This  is  the  chief 
emporium  for  carpets,  rugs,  and  embroidered  stuffs.  Open- 
air  auctions  take  place  on  the  mornings  of  Monday  and 
Thursday,  which  are  very  amusing  to  watch,  —  the  dellalin 
(appraisers),  the  prototypes  of  the  porters  of  modern  sales 
by  auction,  carrying  among  the  crowd  the  articles  put  up, 
and  crying  out  the  bids  as  they  are  made.  In  one  part  of 
the  khan  is  a  place  reserved  for  dealers  in  brass  and  copper 
goods. 

Crossing  the  street  Suk-en-Nahhassin,  we  come  to  the 
Suk-es-Saigh  (gold  and  silversmiths'  bazaar),  a  much-fre- 
quented resort  of  tourists.      The  workmanship  and  quality 


134  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

of  the  trinkets  have  greatly  deteriorated  of  late.  In  fact, 
old  Cairo  residents  among  the  foreign  colony  declare  that 
many  of  the  jewels  have  a  Palais  Royal  or  Birmingham 
origin. 

Continuing  northwards,  and  turning  to  the  right,  we 
reach  the  Gam^i^jgJi,  (camel-drivers^^S[imrter.  Here  are 
the  shops  of  the  Red  Sea  traders.  Very  inferior  -gpods  are 
usually  only  obtainable  here,  the  chief  commodities  being  in- 
cense, perfumes,  spices,  mother-of-pearl,  and  attar  of  roses. 
The  latter  is  so  much  diluted  that  it  is  almost  worthless,  a 
small  flask  being  sold  for  a  franc  or  so,  which  would  cost 
at  least  a  pound  if  pure.  The  northern  continuation  of 
the  street  forms  the  coppersmiths'  bazaar ;  and  here  are  also 
booths  for  the  sale  of  pipes,  cigar-holders,  amber,  narghi- 
lehs,  chibouques,  and  other  articles  for  smokers.  Retracing 
our  steps  to  the  starting-point,  and  crossing  the  Rue  Neuve, 
—  as  absurdly  named  as  New  College  at  Oxford,  for  it  is 
one  of  the  oldest  streets,  —  we  reach  the  once  flourishing 
Suk-es-Sudan,  which,  though  mentioned  in  the  guide-books, 
no  longer  exists,  since  the  Soudan  has  been  practically 
closed  to  traders.  In  this  quarter  are  also  the  booksellers' 
bazaar,  of  little  interest,  and  the  Suk-el-Attarin  (spices, 
perfumes,  etc.),  one  of  the  most  characteristic  bazaars. 

Unfortunately,  the  articles  in  the  bazaars  mostly  visited 
by  strangers  are  often  either  inferior  imported  goods  from 
Europe,  —  jewelry  from  Birmingham,  carpets  from  Brus- 
sels, haiks  and  silk  goods  from  Nimes  or  Lyons,  cotton 
stuffs  from  Manchester,  etc.,  —  or  cheap  and  showy  bric-a- 
brac  and  sham  curios,  manufactured  to  meet  the  factitious 
demand  of  tourists.  In  fact,  many  of  the  shops  bear  a 
striking  resemblance  to  the  Oriental  stalls  at  international 
exhibitions.  Genuine  Oriental  goods  can,  however,  be 
bought  at  the  picturesque  Suk-el-Fahhamin,  behind  El- 
Ghuri  Mosque,  a  favourite  haunt  of  artists  and  others 
appreciative  of  local  colour.     Here  are  to  be  found  rugs, 


THE    BAZAARS    AND    STREET    LIFE.  135 

bernouses,  Fez  caps,  saddle-bags,  and  other  articles,  from 
Tunis,  Algeria,  and  Morocco. 

With  regard  to  purchases,  bargaining  is,  of  course, 
necessary.  Even  if  the  tourist  is  inexperienced  and  igno- 
rant of  the  value  of  Oriental  wares,  he  might  better  trust  to 
his  own  powers  of  bargaining  than  allow  a  guide  or  inter- 
preter to  intervene.  The  seller,  it  must  be  remembered, 
has  a  different  price  for  each  customer,  as  a  rule.  Seasoned 
travellers  in  the  East  lay  down  the  axiom  that  the  prospec- 
tive buyer  should,  as  a  rule,  offer  half  what  is  asked,  when 
a  bargain  can  be  struck  midway  between  the  two  prices. 
The  objection  to  this  "  splitting  the  difference  "  is  that  the 
dealers  are  fully  aware  of  this  rule,  and  raise  the  original 
price  to  cope  with  it.  Real  bargains  can,  however,  still 
be  obtained  by  a  visitor  who  is  making  a  long  stay  in  Cairo, 
and  has  the  necessary  patience  to  go  through  the  tedious 
preliminary  negotiations.  The  winter  resident  who  makes 
several  visits  to  the  bazaar  quarter,  and  is  not  in  a  hurry 
to  spend  his  money,  will,  sooner  or  later,  get  the  refusal 
of  really  valuable  articles  at  not  very  much  more  than 
their  market  value.  When  purchasing  jewelry,  the  buyer 
should  see  that  it  has  the  Government  stamp,  indicating 
number  of  carats.  Genuine  Mushrabiyeh  work  (carved 
wooden  latticework)  is  very  costly.  Most  specimens  sold 
are  imitations,  the  pieces  being  turned  out  in  one  uniform 
size  by  a  lathe.  In  the  real  article  (the  most  characteristic 
Cairo  industry)  each  piece  is  irregular,  and  is  cut  by  hand. 
The  best  days  for  the  bazaars  are  the  market-days,  Mondays 
and  Thursdays,  and  the  hours  early  in  the  morning  or  late 
in  the  afternoon. 

Even  now,  in  this  tourist-ridden  native  quarter,  which  is 
apt  to  be  regarded  by  most  strangers  in  the  light  of  an 
Oriental  spectacle  conveniently  arranged  for  the  benefit  of 
European  visitors,  at  the  threshold  of  New  Cairo  in  the 
Ezbekiya    (the   hausmannised   Cairo   of   Ismail),  in   bar- 


136  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

gaining  for  the  more  costly  wares,  the  time-honoured  Ori- 
ental methods  prevail.  The  negotiations  are  hedged  round 
with  a  certain  amount  of  ceremony  which  recalls  the  stately 
fashion  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  when  the  purchase  of  a 
brass  tray  or  an  embroidered  saddle-cloth  was  a  solemn 
treaty,  and  the  bargain  for  a  lamp  a  diplomatic  event 
not  to  be  lightly  undertaken  or  hurriedly  concluded  by 
either  of  the  high  contracting  parties.  Those  who  are 
anxious  to  imbibe  the  Oriental  "  atmosphere "  will,  no 
doubt,  be  more  inclined  to  tolerate  the  long  and  tedious 
process  of  chaffering,  considered  an  indispensable  pre- 
liminary to  a  purchase,  than  the  ordinary,  matter-of-fact 
tourist.  Native  manners  and  customs,  and  the  multifarious 
phases  of  Cairene  life  —  for,  as  in  all  Oriental  countries,  the 
inhabitants  live  and  carry  on  their  various  occupations  and 
avocations  in  the  open  air  as  much  as  possible,  and  the 
Cairene  is  as  great  a  sun- worshipper  as  the  Neapolitan  — 
are,  of  course,  best  observed  in  the  region  of  the  bazaars. 
The  El-Muayyad  Bazaar,  behind  the  mosque  of  that  name, 
is  a  particularly  good  field  for  the  searcher  after  local 
colour.  This  is  peculiarly  a  native  mart,  and  less  of  a 
tourist  resort  than  most  of  the  bazaars. 

But,  for  broad  spectacular  effects,  the  visitor  must  betake 
himself  to  the  Mooski,  the  moaLxhairaGtejdslie,  thorough- 
fare, of  _C  air  o.  Here  a  strange  amalgam  .of  Eastex-n  and 
Western  life  bursts  upon  the  spectator's  astonished  gaze ; 
and  here,  indeed,  the  "  East  shakes  hands  with  the  West." 
This  living  diorama,  formed  by  the  brilliant  and  ever  shift- 
ing crowd,  is,  in  its  way,  unique.  A  greater  variety  of 
nationalities  is  collected  here  than  even  in  Constantinople, 
the  most  cosmopolitan  city,  in  a  spectacular  sense,  in  Eu- 
rope ;  and  in  this  great  carnival  one  seems  to  meet  every 
costume  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  Let  us  stand  aside 
and  watch  this  motley  throng  of  all  races  and  nationalities 
pouring  along  this  busy  highway.     The  kaleidoscopic  vari- 


THE  BAZAARS  AND  STREET  LIFE.       137 

ety  of  brilliant  colour  and  fantastic  costume  is  a  little  bewil- 
dering to  the  stranger.  Solemn  and  impassive-looking 
Turks,  gently  ambling  past  on  gaily  caparisoned  mules, 
grinning  negroes  from  the  Soudan,  melancholy-looking  fel- 
lahs in  their  scanty  blue  kaftans,  cunning-featured  Levan- 
tines, green-turbaned  Shereefs,  and  picturesque  Bedouins 
from  the  desert,  stalking  past  in  their  flowing  bernouses, 
make  up  the  mass  of  this  restless  throng.  A  sakkah,  or 
water-carrier,  carrying  his  picturesque  goatskin  filled  with 
Nile  water,  still  finds  a  sale  for  his  drinks  in  spite  of  the  pub- 
lic fountains ;  while  among  other  dramatis  personce  of  the 
Arabian  Nights  are  the  vendors  of  sweets  and  all  kinds  of 
edibles.  Interspersed,  and  giving  variety  of  colour  to  this 
living  kinetoscope,  are  gorgeously  arrayed  Jewesses,  fierce- 
looking  Albanians,  their  many-coloured  sashes  bristling  with 
weapons,  and  petticoated  Greeks.  Then,  as  a  restful  relief 
to  this  blaze  of  colour,  appears  a  white  group  of  Egyptian 
ladies,  —  "a  bevy  of  fair  damsels  richly  dight,"  no  doubt, 
but  their  faces,  as  well  as  their  rich  attire,  concealed  under 
the  inevitable  yashmak  and  voluminous  haik.  Such  are 
the  elements  in  this  mammoth  masquerade  which  make 
up  the  brilliant  and  varied  picture  of  Cairene  street-life. 

These  are,  no  doubt,  the  aspects  which  force  themselves 
on  the  notice  of  the  most  unobservant  tourist,  and  are 
among  the  impressions  of  every  scribbling  globe-trotter. 
Less  obvious  is  the  "  charm  of  endless  contrasts,  —  not  chro- 
matic alone,  but  contrast  of  race,  feature,  form,  costume, 
attitude,  occupation,  movement,  mood.  This  it  is  that 
makes  the  magic  of  the  marvellous  Eastern  city  for  the 
Western  eye.  Nor  is  the  medley  of  manners  less  striking 
than  the  hotch-potch  of  races  and  the  tangle  of  tongues." 
The  Oriental  justifies  the  popular  Western  conception  of 
gravity  and  impassiveness  of  demeanour.  Plenty  of  these 
types  abound,  but  there  are  others,  —  souvent  homme  varie. 
"  In  one  form  he  treads  the  roadway  with  the  majesty  of 


138  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Haroun  Alraschid ;  in  another,  he  scampers  through  the 
streets  like  a  Parisian  gamin.  The  features  of  that  vener- 
able pipe-merchant  are  as  unemotional  as  a  Red  Indian's ; 
but  if  the  purchaser,  who  is  haggling  with  him  for  the 
abatement  of  a  piastre,  were  pleading  for  the  life  of  his 
only  child,  the  passionate,  suppliant  expression  of  his  coun- 
tenance would  more  than  satisfy  the  dramatic  requirements 
of  the  situation."  Thus  are  the  salient  features  of  the 
Cairo  streets  amusingly  and  cleverly  hit  off  by  Mr.  H.  D. 
Traill,  in  his  "  Impressions  de  Voyage,"  recently  published 
under  the  title  "  From  Cairo  to  the  Soudan  Frontier." 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   MOSQUES. 

IT  must  be  admitted  that  mosques  are  not  of  great 
interest,  from  the  casual  sight-seer's  point  of  view, 
owing  to  their  uniformity  and  severe  simplicity  of  design, 
which,  however,  harmonises  well  with  the  almost  complete 
absence  of  ritual  in  Moslem  worship.  The  chief  features 
are  an  open  court  £sahn)  with  a  fountain  or  cistern  in  the 
middle,  surrounded  b^_a^ovei:£d.-jcloister  ..(iiwiin).  The 
more  sacred  part  of  the  building  (maksura),  corresponding 
to  the  choir  of  an  English  cathedral,  is  often  screened  off 
from  the  rest  of  the  building.  Here  the  tomb  of  the 
founder  is  usually  placed.  In  the  centre  of  this  sanctuary 
is  the  niche  (mihrab  or  kibla)  showing  the  direction  of 
Mecca,  and  the  pulpit  (mimbar). 

The  visitor  should  remember  the  names  of  these  princi- 
pal portions  of  a  Mohammedan  temple,  if  he  wishes  to 
obtain  an  intelligent  grasp  of  Moslem  ecclesiastical  archi- 
tecture. Archaeologically  speaking,  the  most  correct  mosque 
in  Cairo  is  Amru,  which  will  be  described  later  in  the  chap- 
ter devoted  to  Old  Cairo  and  the  Coptic  churches.  This  is 
the  original  and  normal  type  of  mosque,  the  best  example 
of  which  must  not,  however,  be  sought  in  Cairo,  but  in 
Cordova,  the  mosque  cathedral  there  being  considered  to 
be  the  most  perfect  and  best -preserved  specimen  of  this 
form  of  Saracenic  art  in  existence.  In  Cairo  the  only 
mosques,  besides  Amru,  which  strictly  follow  the  orthodox 
pattern,  are  Ihn  Tulun  and  the  University  Mosque,  El- 
Azhar. 


140  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

There  are  over  three_  hundred  mosques  in  Cairo, — 
indeed,  it  is  said  by  the  Arabs  that,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
churches  of  Rome,  there  is  one  for  every  day  of  the  year,  — 
but  most  are  in  ruins ;  a  large  number  have  been  devoted  to 
secular  purposes,  and  there  remain  scarcely  over  a  score 
that  even  the  most  conscientious  sight-seer  would  care  to 
explore.  In  some  of  the  larger  mosques,  such  as  the 
Kalaun,  a  whole  group  of  public  buildings  are  comprised. 
Besides  the  mosque  -pri)pfir,.thereJ5dU...heJEauM.-a4io&pital, 
sclK¥xl^nijpihjfvf_ji[]gt'i ce,  irtQH aftjhery^  library ,  etc.  In  short, 
the  mosque  may  be  said  to  serve  as  a  kind  of  embodiment 
of  the  national  life. 

One  of  the  largest  mosques  in  Cairo  is  Muristan  Kalaun. 
It  is  not  strictly  a  mosque,  but  a  hospital,  and  is  now  in  a 
ruinous  condition.  The  mosque-tomb  of  the  founder,  ad- 
joining, is  a  much-frequented  shrine  of  the  poorer  classes, 
who  firmly  believe  in  the  curative  properties  of  the  col- 
umns of  the  prayer-niche,  which  they  are  accustomed  to 
lick.  Certain  relics  of  the  Sultan  are  preserved  here, 
which,  of  course,  possess  equally  miraculous  powers  in  the 
eyes  of  the  devout.  These  antiquities —  a  turban  and  sash 
of  the  Sultan  Kalaun  —  cannot,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  be 
shown  to  strangers. 

The  adjoining  mosque  is  comparatively  uninteresting; 
but  the  next  one  (Barkuk),  which  contains  the  tombs  of 
the  wife  and  daughter*or^e  Mameluke  Sultan  Barkuk, 
should  be  visited,  if  only  to  see  the  exquisite  workmanship 
in  bronze  of  one  of  the  doors.  The  tomb  of  the  Sultan 
himself,  whose  body  would  be  thought  to  be  desecrated  if 
placed  in  the  same  building  as  that  of  his  wife,  is  buried  in 
the  Tomb  Mosque  Barkuk,  in  the  Eastern  Cemetery. 

In  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  Kalaun  may 
be  seen  a  trace  of  Gothic  influence  introduced  by  the  Cru- 
saders. This  is  the  beautiful  arched  doorway,  which  was 
brought  from  a  Christian  church  at  Acre  built  by  the 


THE    MOSQUES.  141 

Crusaders.  This  archway  is  a  fine  specimen  of  early 
English  architecture,  and  Mr.  Stanley-Poole  pertinently 
observes  that  it  would  not  be  out  of  place  in  Salisbury 
Cathedral. 

For  beauty  of  decoration  this  mosque  must,  however, 
yield  the  palm  to  the  twin  mosques  of  Kait_Bey, 
especially  the  one  in  the  Eastern  Cemetery  (usually,  but 
erroneously,  known  as  the  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs).  The 
exterior  is  unequalled  among  the  monuments  of  the  Arabic 
art  of  Cairo  for  richness  and  variety  of  decoration.  The 
delicate  scrollwork  and  tracery  of  the  fawn-coloured  dome, 
and  the  graceful  pagoda -like  minarets,  are  familiar  to 
every  traveller.  The  interior  has  little  decoration  of  any 
kind.  Possibly  this  was  intentional,  to  mark  a  place  of 
sepulture,  for  Kait  Bey  is  buried  here.  In  the  sister 
mosque  within  the  walls,  the  highly  elaborate  decoration 
of  the  interior  offers  a  strong  contrast.  This  mosque, 
owing,  probably,  to  its  not  being  prominently  mentioned  in 
the  guide-books,  —  for  the  average  tourist  rarely  strikes 
out  an  independent  line  for  himseK, — or  perhaps  because 
it  is  a  little  difficult  to  find,  is  seldom  visited.  Yet  this 
mosque  is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  in  Cairo,  and 
should  on  no  account  be  neglected.  It  has  been  restored 
in  good  taste  by  the  Commission  for  the  Preservation  of 
Arabic  Monuments. 

This  admirable  Society,  which  receives  an  annual  subsidy 
of  no  more  than  <£ 4,000  from  the  State,  has  done  excel- 
lent work  since  its  institution  by  the  late  Khedive  Tewfik 
in  1881.  It  carries  out  all  necessary  renovations  under 
the  old  established,  but  somewhat  cumbrous,  Wakfs  Ad- 
ministration, the  Department  which  has  the  charge  of  all 
the  mosques,  corresponding  in  some  respects  to  the  Minis- 
try of  Public  Worship  in  the  French  Republic,  or  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  in  Great  Britain.  This  body 
depends  for  its  income,  apart  from  the  State  convention, 


142  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

on  the  entrance  fee  of  two  piastres,  which  is  levied  on 
strangers  for  each  mosque.  In  this  ancient  corporation  is 
vested  all  ecclesiastical  property  in  Egypt;  in  fact,  next 
to  the  Khedive,  the  Church,  if  such  a  word  may  be  used  in  J 
connection  with  a  heathen  faith,  was  the  richest  landlord 
in  Egypt.  If  a  man  died  without  immediate  is^ue  hid-- 
property  went  to  the  nearest  mosque,^ — -in  practice  to  the 
Wakf ;  and  if  his  next  of  kin  claimed  it,  he  would  have  to 
pay  an  enormous  percentage  of  the  value  to  the  Adminis- 
tration in  order  to  redeem  his  inheritance.  Then  a  tithe 
was  obligatory  on  every  head  of  a  family.  Consequently, 
as  Mr.  Richard  Davey  observes,  in  his  exhaustive  work  on 
"  The  Sultan  and  his  Subjects,"  Mohammedanism,  though 
it  had  no  regularly  endowed  priesthood,  was  as  richly  fur- 
nished with  this  world's  goods  as  the  Church  in  England 
before  the  Reformation.  In  theory,  the  Church  devoted 
her  vast  wealth  to  the  poor,  to  education  and  charity,  the 
service  and  preservation  of  the  mosques,  and  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  preachers,  attendants,  and  other  officials  of 
the  mosques.  But  the  practice  was  far  worse  than  the 
worst  which  Henry  the  Eighth's  Visitors  discovered  in  the 
monasteries  before  the  old  order  was  swept  away,  as  may 
be  seen  by  a  visit  to  most  of  the  mosques  whose  restoration 
has  not  been  taken  in  hand  by  the  Commission  for  the 
Preservation  of  Arabic  Monuments.  Now,  of  course,  since 
the  removal  of  Ismail  from  the  viceroyalty  by  the  Sultan, 
at  the  demand  of  the  Great  Powers,  and  the  appointment 
of  an  English  Comptroller  of  the  Exchequer,  under  the 
title  of  Financial  Adviser  to  the  Khedive,  the  powers  of 
the  Wakf  corporation  have  been  much  curtailed,  and  the 
collection,  and  to  a  large  extent  the  expenditure,  of  this 
revenue  is  controlled  by  the  State. 

After  visiting  the  Kalaun,  it  is  worth  while  to  turn  aside 
into  one  of  the  picturesque  alleys  branching  off  from  the 
Sharia  (street)  en-Nahhassin,  —  the  great  mosque  thor- 


THE    MOSQUES.  143 

oughfare,  though  a  narrow  street,  according  to  modern 
notions,  —  and  make  one's  way  to  a  small  but  beautifully 
decorated  mosque,  called  Abu  Bekr.  As  the  guide-books 
barely  mention  it,  the  ordinary  tourist  misses  it;  but  a 
visit  will  be  well  repaid.  The  exquisite  marble  mosaics 
are  almost  unequalled  in  Cairo.  Great  pains  have  been 
taken  in  the  restoration  of  this  mosque  by  Herz  Bey,  the 
architect  of  the  Wakfs  Administration,  who  has  carried 
out  the  work  with  the  most  scrupulous  fidelity  to  the 
original  plan.  The  result  is  an  architectural  gem,  as 
pleasing  to  the  eye  as  it  is  archaeologically  correct. 

El-Ghuri,  near  the  Attar  a  Bazaar,  is  another  mosque 
which  is  not  visited  as  much  as  it  deserves.  The  restor- 
ations carried  on  here  by  the  Ancient  Monuments  Com- 
mission also  reflect  considerable  credit  on  this  body. 

The  mosque  known  as  El-Hassanen  is  dedicated  to  the 
two  sons  (Hasseen  and  Hassan)  of  Ali,  the  son-in-law  of 
Mohammed,  and  in  the  eyes  of  devout  Moslems  it  conse- 
quently possesses  peculiar  sanctity.  It  has  been  entirely 
rebuilt,  and  in  modern  style,  and  lighted  throughout  with 
gas,  to  the  dismay  of  artists  and  archaeologists.  In  spite  of 
this  aggressive  note  of  modernity,  this  mosque,  as  the 
burial-place  of  the  head  of  Hasseen  (one  of  the  most 
venerated  saints  in  the  Mohammedan  calendar),  is  much 
frequented  by  the  Cairenes,  and  the  Festival  of  the  Molid 
(birthday)  of  the  two  saints  celebrated  here  is  the  most 
important  after  that  of  the  Prophet.  The  Khedive  visits 
the  mosque  in  state,  followed  by  thousands  of  the  populace, 
who  throng  the  building  till  midnight.  The  illuminations 
of  the  mosque  and  surrounding  bazaars  are  magnificent. 
"  There  is  no  scene  in  Cairo  which  reminds  one  more 
forcibly  of  the  Arabian  Nights,"  says  that  high  authority, 
Murray.  In  the  Mosque  Siti  Zenab,  generally  known  as 
the  "  Women's  Mosque,"  at  the  other  end  of  the  city,  is 
buried  Zenab,  the  sister  of  the  Hassanen.     It  is  elaborately 


144  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

decorated  and  has  a  great  wealth  of  coloured  glass ;  but  the 
restorations  have  not  been  tastefully  carried  out,  and  "  the 
mixture  of  Turkish  decoration  with  the  modern  style  of 
architecture  does  not  produce  a  pleasing  effect." 

The  Ihn  Tulun  Mosque,  like  the  mosque  in  the  Place  du 
Gouvernement  at  Algiers,  and  the  Agia  Sofia  (St.  Sophia), 
of  Constantinople,  was  designed  by  a  Christian  architect, 
and  is  said  to  be  a  copy  of  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca.  The 
original  idea  of  Sultan  Tulun  (the  founder  of  the  Tulunide 
dynasty,  a.  d.  868  to  895)  was  to  build  a  mosque  which 
should  vie  with  that  of  Kerouan  (Tunisia)  in  the  number 
of  its  columns,  taken,  as  was  usual  with  the  Arab  mosque- 
builders,  from  the  ruins  of  Greek  and  Roman  temples. 
Fortunately,  he  renounced  this  vandalistic  scheme.  The 
columns  of  the  arches  which  form  a  colonnade  skirting 
the  sides  of  the  court  are  of  brick  instead  of  stone.  The 
pointed  arches  recall  the  Norman  style  of  architecture,  and 
Mr.  Lane-Poole  declares  that  this  mosque  constitutes  the 
first  example  of  the  employment  of  pointed  arches  through- 
out a  whole  building,  for  their  adoption  in  England  did 
not  take  place  till  some  three  hundred  years  later.  An 
absurd  number  of  traditions  are  attached  to  the  building, 
which,  according  to  some  chroniclers,  is  built  on  the  site 
of  the  "  Burning  Bush,"  where  the  Almighty  conversed 
with  the  Patriarch  Moses,  as  well  as  the  site  of  Abraham's 
sacrifice,  and  the  landing-place  of  the  Ark.  The  fact  that 
Ihn  Tulun  is,  next  to  Amru  Mosque,  the  oldest  in  Cairo, 
perhaps  explains  the  wealth  of  legendary  lore  which  clus- 
ters round  this  venerable  ruin.  Owing  to  its  ruinous  state, 
the  mosque  is  of  more  interest  to  the  historian  or  Egypt- 
ologist than  the  ordinary  traveller.  Its  exterior  view  bears 
a  curious  resemblance  to  a  dismantled  fortress. 

The  Mosque  El-Azhar  is  unique  among  the  Cairene 
mosques.  It  is  the  largest  Moslem  university  in  the  world, 
and   perhaps   the   oldest   of   any   university.  Christian  or 


THE    MOSQUES.  145 

Mohammedan,  the  old  mosque  having  been  set  apart  for 
purposes  of  study  towards  the  end  of  the  tenth  century. 
Over  eleven  thousand  students,  drawn  from  every  Moham- 
medan country,  are  said  to  be  "  inscribed  on  the  books," 
and  the  professors  number  over  three  hundred.  The  edu- 
cational methods  might,  in  the  present-day  vernacular,  be 
termed  undenominational,  for  all  the  chief  Moslem  sects 
are  represented  in  this  truly  catholic  institution.  Innu- 
merable chambers  are  partitioned  off  among  the  colonnades 
of  the  Great  Court,  which  correspond  to  the  side  chapels 
in  a  Christian  cathedral,  each  of  which  serves  as  the  lec- 
ture-hall of  natives  of  a  particular  country;  these  rep- 
resent the  colleges  of  the  university.  On  Friday,  the 
Mohammedan  Sabbath,  no  teaching  takes  place ;  and  as 
this  is  its  most  salient  feature,  travellers  should  take  care 
to  choose  some  other  day  for  their  visit.  The  authorities 
do  not  encourage  the  presence  of  strangers,  and,  pace  the 
guide-books,  admittance  is  not  always  practicable.  Some 
of  the  sects  are  decidedly  fanatical,  and  strangers  will  be 
well  advised  to  abstain  from  any  overt  expression  of  amuse- 
ment at  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  some  thousands  of 
students,  of  all  ages,  repeating  verses  of  the  Koran  in  a 
curious  monotone,  while  swaying  their  bodies  from  side  to 
side,  —  supposed  to  be  an  aid  to  memory. 

The  Mosque  Sultan  Hassan  is  a  magnificent  building  of 
the  palmy  days  of  Arab  art,  and,  on  account  of  its  grand 
proportions  and  splendid  decorations,  is  called  by  the  Cai- 
renes  the  "  superb  mosque."  It  is  said  to  have  cost  over 
.£600,000.  The  mosque  may,  in  a  sense,  be  considered 
the  national  mosque  of  Cairo,  and  is  attended  by  the  Khe- 
dive on  the  occasion  of  any  great  religious  function.  The 
building,  too,  has  often  served  as  a  kind  of  meeting-place 
of  the  natives,  in  times  of  public  disturbance,  and  has 
always  been  the  rallying-place  of  demagogues  and  oppo- 
nents of  the  Government,  notably  at  the  time  of  the  Arabi 


146  THE    CITY   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

revolt  in  1881.  The  body  of  the  Sultan,  who  was  assassi- 
nated in  1361,  lies  in  a  mausoleum  which  is  crowned  with 
a  magnificent  dome  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  high. 

The  Mameluke  sovereigns  were  great  mosque-builders, 
and  it  will  be  noticed  that  many  of  the  most  interesting 
mosques  date  from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  to  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  (when  the  Ottoman  sultan, 
Selim  II.,  conquered  Cairo),  which  synchronises  with  the 
golden  age  of  the  two  Mameluke  dynasties. 

The  following  description  of  this  majestic  building  will 
give  an  idea  of  its  enormous  proportions : 

"  The  outer  walls  of  this  stately  mosque  are  nearly  a  hundred  feet 
in  height,  and  they  are  capped  by  a  cornice  thirteen  feet  high,  pro- 
jecting six  feet,  formed  of  stalactite,  which  has  ever  since  been  a 
marked  feature  in  Arabian  architecture.  The  arches  of  the  door- 
ways and  of  the  numerous  windows,  and  even  the  capitals  of  the 
columns,  are  similarly  enriched.  |  The  great  doorway  in  the  north- 
em  side  is  situated  in  a  recess  sixty-six  feet  in  height.  The  mina- 
ret, gracefully  converted  from  a  square  at  its  base  to  an  octagon  in 
its  upper  part,  is  the  loftiest  in  existence,  measuring  two  hundred 
and  eighty  feet."  ^ 

Unfortunately,  this  noble  fabric  is  in  a  very  ruinous  con- 
dition, and  instead  of  restoring  it,  the  late  Khedive  devoted 
his  energies  and  his  purse  to  the  building  of  a  new  mosque 
adjoining,  which  was  intended  to  rival  the  other.  So  far  as 
can  be  judged  at  present,  —  for  it  is  still  a  long  way  from 
completion,  —  the  Sultan  Hassan  Mosque  is  not  likely  to  be 
eclipsed  by  the  new  one,  known  as  the  Mosque  of  the 
Rifaiya,  a  particularly  fanatical  order  of  dervishes,  corre- 
sponding in  some  respects  to  the  Aissoua  sect  of  Algeria. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  attractive  mosques  is  that 
popularly  known  as  Ibrahim^Agha,  or  by  tourists,  "  The 
Blue-tiled  Mosque."  Its  official  title  is  Kher-bek,  as  it  was 
built  by  this  renegade  Mameluke,  who  afterwards  (1517) 

1  The  Art  Journal,  1881. 


THE    MOSQUES.  147 

became  the  first  Pacha  of  Egypt  under  the  Ottoman  sul- 
tans. On  this  account  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Cairenes 
have  not  wished  to  perpetuate  the  name  of  this  traitor,  and 
prefer  to  call  the  mosque  after  Ibrahim  Agha,  who  en- 
larged and  restored  it  in  1617.  The  interior  is  well 
described  by  Colonel  Plunkett  in  his  slight  but  charming 
little  brochure,  "  Walks  in  Cairo." 

The  vaulted  colonnade  on  the  east  side  rests  on  massive 
piers,  and  between  them  glows  the  rich  blue  of  the  tiles 
which  cover  the  wall ;  they  are  set  in  panels,  though 
somewhat  irregularly,  and  with  some  serious  gaps,  where, 
doubtless,  unscrupulous  collectors  have  obtained  valuable 
specimens  by  the  aid  of  dishonest  guardians.  The  effect 
depends  greatly  on  the  light  by  which  the  mosque  is  seen, 
but  is  always  rich  and  striking ;  the  open  court,  too,  with 
its  little  garden  of  palms  and  other  trees  in  the  centre,  and 
the  graceful  minaret  rising  above  the  crenelated  wall,  is 
very  attractive,  and  has,  especially  towards  sunset,  a  pecu- 
liarly quiet  and  beautiful  appearance. 

El-Hakim  is  one  of  the  largest  mosques  of  Cairo,  as  well 
as  the  oldest  (after  Amru,  Tulun,  and  El-Azhar),  but  it  is 
in  a  deplorably  ruinous  condition.  The  mosque  is  unique, 
as  being  the  sole  one  provided  with  a  makhara  (an  exter- 
nal platform,  not  to  be  confounded  with  a  minaret),  on 
which  incense  is  burned  on  important  festivals.  It  is 
visited  chiefly  as  the  temporary  house  of  the  Museum  of 
Arabic  Art. 

In  most  cases,  the  best  movable  decorations  and  fittings  of 
the  mosques,  such  as  the  carved  mihrab,  bronze  doors,  en- 
amelled lamps,  woodwork,  etc.,  have  been  removed  from  the 
mosques  and  preserved  in  the  Arab  musuem.  Most  visi- 
tors would,  no  doubt,  prefer  to  see  these  objects  in  situ,  but 
the  authorities  are  certainly  justified  in  their  action;  for 
there  is  no  doubt  that  most  of  the  more  artistic  objects 
in  the  mosques  would  have  been  sold,  sooner  or  later,  to 


148  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

strangers  and  collectors  by  the  mosque  guardians,  and 
what  escaped  their  rapacity  would  soon  have  been  spoiled 
by  neglect.  '  For  many  years  the  objects  in  this  unique 
collection  were  stowed  away  in  one  of  the  mosque  build- 
ings, without  any  attempt  at  systematic  or  chronological 
arrangement,  and  were  lost  to  most  visitors ;  but  recently 
the  authorities  have  had  the  objects  carefully  arranged  and 
scientifically  catalogued.  In  a  subsequent  chapter  this 
magnificent  collection  will  be  described  at  some  length. 

Though,  next  to  the  bazaars,  the  mosques  are,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  guides  and  dragomans,  the  chief  sights  of 
Cairo,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  ordinary  visitor  will 
find  a  whole  day  devoted  solely  to  these  Moslem  temples 
somewhat  tedious.  It  is  certainly  advisable  to  combine 
the  excursion  to  the  mosques  with  some  other  kind  of 
sightseeing.  However,  whatever  the  tastes  of  the  trav- 
eller, I  think  the  mosques  described  above  are  fairly  repre- 
sentative specimens  of  Moslem  architecture. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  mosques  of  the  Citadel, 
but  these  will  be  treated  of  in  the  chapter  in  which  I  pro- 
pose to  describe  the  Cairene  Acropolis. 


-^ 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   TOMBS   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

THE  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs  are  a  remarkably  interesting 
group  of  mausolea,  strictly  mosque-tombs,  situated 
outside  the  walls,  a  little  north  of  the  Citadel.  They  are 
easily  reached  by  the  Mooski  and  Rue  Neuve.  These 
tombs  have  no  connection  with  the  Caliphs,  but  as  the 
guides  invariably  employ  this  designation,  it  has  naturally 
been  adopted  by  visitors.  The  Caliphs  have  no  separate 
burial-place,  and,  in  fact,  most  of  their  tombs  in  the  vari- 
ous mosques  of  the  city  have  been  destroyed.  As  the 
tomb-mosque  of  Kait  Bey  is  the  most  important  in  this 
necropolis,  it  is  often  called  by  Cairenes  the  Cemetery  of 
Kait  Bey.  It  also  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Eastern  Cem- 
etery. The  Sultans  buried  here  belong  to  the  Circas- 
sian Mameluke  dynasty,  and  most  of  the  tombs  date  from 
the  fifteenth  century.  They  are,  for  the  main  part,  in  a 
terribly  dilapidated  condition;  the  Wakfs  Administration 
seem  to  have  recognised  the  impossibility  of  restoring 
them  properly  with  the  funds  at  their  disposal,  and  have, 
perhaps  wisely,  made  no  attempt  at  restoration,  except  in 
the  case  of  one  or  two  of  the  more  important  ones. 

The  title  Caliph,  in  connection  with  the  various  Mo- 
hammedan dynasties  in  Egypt,  is  often  used  loosely  by 
those  who  have  written  their  history.  Cairo  was  never, 
according  to  the  orthodox  view  of  Mohammedans,  the 
seat  of  the  Caliphate,  though  some  of  the  Arab  rulers, 
who  were  strictly  viziers,  or  viceroys,  usurped  the  title  it- 
self as  well  as  its  functions.     Up  to  750  a.  d.,  Damascus 


150  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

was  the  seat  of  the  Caliphate.  Then  Bagdad,  under  the 
Abbasside  dynasty ;  and  finally,  on  the  conquest  of  Egypt 
by  the  Ottoman  Turks  under  Sultan  Selim,  Constantinople 
became  the  titular  city  of  the  Caliph,  and  has  remained 
so  down  to  the  present  time.  It  is  true,  however,  that 
during  the  later  Arab  dynasties  in  Egypt  the  actual  Caliph 
was  occasionally  under  the  virtual  protection  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Sultan,  and  Cairo  was  the  residence  of  this  fainiant 
Commander  of  the  Faithful.  The  last  of  these  nominal 
Caliphs  died  in  Egypt  about  1537  a.  d. 

It  is  important,  then,  to  distinguish  between  those  who 
were  Caliphs  de  facto  merely,  and  those  who  were  both 
de  facto  and  de  jure  successors  of  Mohammed,  which  is  the 
strict  interpretation  of  the  much-abused  term  Caliph. 

What  might  be  called  the  historical  instinct  would  be 
required  for  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  intricate  suc- 
cession of  dynasties  who  controlled  the  destinies  of  Egypt, 
from  its  conquests  by  Amru,  the  general  of  the  Caliph 
Omar  (a  genuine  Caliph),  in  1638,  down  to  the  invasion 
by  the  Turks  in  1517,  when  Egypt  was  reduced  to  a 
mere  pachalic  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  most  im- 
portant of  these  dynasties  were  the  Abbassides,  Fatimites, 
Ayyubides,  and  the  Mamelukes.  Perhaps  the  former  is 
the  most  familiar  to  the  general  reader,  as  it  was  to  this 
dynasty  that  our  old  friend  Haroun-Al-Raschid  belonged. 
The  Fatimites  form  a  highly  important  landmark  in  our 
rapid  survey  of  Mohammedan  Egypt,  as  the  first  of  these 
sovereigns  founded  the  city  of  Masr-El-Kahira  (modern 
Cairo),  transferring  the  seat  of  government  from  Fostat  to 
the  "  City  of  Victory." 

The  Ayyubide  dynasty  is  noteworthy  from  its  founder, 
Salah-Ed-Deen,  known  to  us  as  Saladin,  who  at  first  ruled 
in  the  name  of  the  then  incapable  Caliph.  In  1169  Saladin 
usurped  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Caliphate,  though 
by  the  orthodox  Mohammedans  this  was  considered  to  be 


THE    TOMBS    OF    THE    CALIPHS.  151 

still  vested  in  the  representative  of  the  deposed  sovereign 
of  the  Abbasside  dynasty,  whose  throne  had  been  usurped 
by  the  famous  Ibn  Tulun.  The  dynasty  of  the  Ayyubides, 
founded  by  this  twelfth  century  Napoleon,  lasted  nearly 
a  century,  —  a  respectable  age  for  a  mediaeval  Egyptian 
dynasty;  and  during  this  period  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad, 
who  were  still  reckoned  as  the  spiritual  heads  of  Islam, 
were  unable  to  exercise  even  a  show  of  sovereignty  in 
temporal  affairs.  The  era  of  Saladin,  during  which  Egypt 
was  transformed  from  a  vassal  province  into  an  empire,  is, 
of  course,  familiar  to  all  of  us.  But  though  best  known 
on  account  of  the  long  struggle  with  the  Crusaders  and  the 
conquest  of  Jerusalem,  these  are  only  a  part  of  Saladin's 
achievements.  "He  made  his  power  felt,"  writes  Mr. 
Stanley  Lane-Poole,  "  far  beyond  the  borders  of  Palestine ; 
his  arms  triumphed  over  hosts  of  valiant  princes  to  the 
banks  of  the  Tigris ;  and  when  he  died,  in  1193,  at  the  age 
of  fifty-seven,  he  left  to  his  sons  and  kinsmen,  not  only  the 
example  of  the  most  chivalrous,  honourable,  and  magnan- 
imous of  kings,  but  substantial  legacies  of  rich  provinces, 
extending  from  Aleppo  and  Mesopotamia  to  Arabia  and 
the  Country  of  the  Blacks." 

With  the  rise  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans,  who  established 
their  rule  over  Egypt  for  the  unprecedented  period  of  two 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  years,  we  enter  upon  a  kind  of 
renaissance  in  art  and  literature,  in  spite  of  the  perpetual 
wars  and  internecine  struggles  between  rival  claimants  to 
the  throne. 

The  question  of  the  Caliphate  during  this  troublous  time 
is,  however,  rendered  comparatively  free  from  difficulty,  as, 
possibly  with  the  view  of  conciliating  the  orthodox  Mos- 
lems, the  Mameluke  Sultans  protected  the  successive  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Abbasside  dynasty  (named  from  Abbas, 
the  uncle  of  Mohammed),  and  formally  recognised  them  as 
nominal  Caliphs.     On  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Otto- 


152  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

mans,  in  1517,  the  Turkish  Sultan  confirmed  the  claim  of 
the  then  Abbasside  Caliph,  and  on  his  death  assumed  the 
title.  This  title  has  since  been  claimed  by  every  succes- 
sive  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

Let  us  now  visit  the  most  interesting  of  these  sepulchral 
monuments. 

Kait  Bey,  Burkuk,  and  El-Ashraf  are  considered  the 
show-mosques,  and  are  the  only  ones  visited  by  the  ma- 
jority of  tourists.  To  visit  the  latter  special  permission 
is  necessary.  Those  fond  of  architecture  are,  however, 
strongly  recommended  not  to  confine  their  attention  to  the 
three  principal  ones. 

The  mosque  of  Kait  Bey,  whose  beautiful  dome  is  so 
familiar  in  sketches  and  photographs,  is  not  only  incom- 
parably the  finest  mosque  in  this  cemetery,  but  for  beauty 
ranks  high  among  all  the  innumerable  mosques  of  Cairo. 
Fergusson,  in  his  famous  architectural  text-book,  speaks  in 
enthusiastic  terms  of  the  elegance  of  the  building : 

"  Looked  at  externally  or  internally,  nothing  can  exceed  the  grace 
of  every  part  of  this  building.  Its  small  dimensions  exclude  it  from 
any  claim  of  grandeur,  nor  does  it  pretend  to  the  purity  of  the 
Greek  and  some  other  styles;  but  as  a  perfect  model  of  the  ele- 
gance we  generally  associate  with  the  architecture  of  this  people, 
it  is,  perhaps,  unrivalled  by  anything  in  Egypt,  and  far  surpasses 
the  Alhambra,  or  the  Western  buildings  of  its  age." 

Two  slabs  of  red  and  black  granite,  with  a  depression  of 
about  the  size  of  a  man's  foot,  will  be  shown  by  the  guide. 
Naturally  a  legend  attaches  to  these  curiously  formed  stones, 
and  they  are  said  to  have  been  brought  from  Mecca  by  Kait 
Bey,  and  the  depression  is  said  to  be  the  impress  of  the 
Prophet's  foot. 

Not  far  from  the  Kait  Bey  Mosque  is  the  large  and  more 
imposing  tomb-mosque  of  Burkuk,  the  first  of  the  Circas- 
sian Mameluke  dynasty  who  flourished  towards  the  end  of 


THE    TOMBS    OF   THE    CALIPHS.  153 

the  fourteenth  century.  This  mosque  can  easily  be  recog- 
nised by  its  magnificent  twin  domes,  which  mark  respec- 
tively the  burial-place  of  the  male  and  female  members  of 
the  Sultan's  family. 

This  style  of  architecture  is  unusual  in  Egypt,  and, 
indeed,  certain  features  of  the  building  are  quite  unique 
among  the  Cairo  mosques.  The  court  is  surrounded  by 
loggia,  which  form  very  picturesque  cloisters.  Though  a 
great  part  of  the  building  is  in  ruins,  the  remains  give  one 
an  idea  of  its  magnificent  proportions.  "  The  symmetrical 
plan  of  the  edifice,  its  massive  masonry,  and  the  symmet- 
rical disposition  of  the  rows  of  pilasters  with  domes  con- 
stitute this  mosque  one  of  the  most  perfect  examples  of 
Arabian  architecture  in  existence."  One  of  the  most 
interesting  objects  is  the  beautifully  chiselled  stone-pulpit, 
perhaps  the  best  specimen  of  its  kind  in  Cairo ;  while  next 
to  the  domes  the  most  noticeable  external  features  are 
the  splendid  minarets,  the  roof  decorated  with  chevron 
mouldings. 

A  striking  feature  of  this  mosque  is  the  remains  of 
buildings  which  served  as  temporary  dwellings  of  relatives 
and  friends  of  the  deceased,  the  residence  of  the  custo- 
dian, etc.  This  group  of  buildings  (called  Hosh),  which 
corresponds  to  the  precincts  in  English  cathedrals,  are 
sometimes,  as  in  this  case,  almost  as  extensive  as  the 
mosque  itself. 

Another  mosque  worth  visiting  is  the  tomb  of  the  Sul- 
tan Barsbey,  or  in  full  El-Ashraf  Barsbey,  a  Sultan  who 
earned  the  unusual  distinction  of  dying  a  natural  death. 
It  is  smaller  than  the  two  mosques  described  above,  and  is 
in  a  ruinous  state.  The  dome,  with  its  intricate  pattern  of 
stone  lace-work,  is  very  striking.  A  mosaic  pavement  in 
coloured  stones  is  much  admired  by  connoisseurs  of  Ara- 
bian art.  The  ornamentation  of  the  dome,  with  its  net- 
work of  arabesques,  is  very  graceful. 


154  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Many  other  mosques  are  scattered  around,  but  they  usu- 
ally serve  more  as  a  subject  for  the  artist  than  as  goals  for 
tourists,  owing  to  their  ruinous  condition.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  tombs  of  the  Mamelukes  south  of  the  Citadel, 
which  are  even  more  in  need  of  repair  at  the  hands  of  the 
Wakfs  Commission.  "  Many  of  these  tombs  present  admir- 
able examples  of  dome  architecture  in,  perhaps,  its  great- 
est perfection,  and  are  models  of  beauty  as  regards  both 
form  and  decoration."  The  sculpturing  of  the  exterior  is 
in  some  cases  exquisite.  Several  are  enriched  by  bands  of 
porcelain,  containing  inscriptions  in  white  letters  upon  a 
coloured  ground.  In  others,  discs  of  blue  porcelain  figure 
among  the  interstices  of  the  variegated  moulding.  None 
of  the  monuments,  situated  in  what  has  often  been  a  battle- 
ground, have  remained  intact,  and  time  is  making  sad 
havoc  with  some  of  the  most  beautiful,  as  every  traveller 
notes  with  regret. 

Between  the  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs  and  the  walls  of 
Cairo  stretches  the  extensive  Mohammedan  cemetery, 
which  should  be  visited  if  only  to  see  the  grave  of  Burck- 
hardt,  the  celebrated  Eastern  traveller,  who  died  in  Cairo 
in  1817.  Like  the  ill-fated  Professor  Palmer,  he  was  best 
known  to  the  Arabs  under  a  native  name,  and  many  stories 
of  the  old  traveller,  known  all  over  the  East  as  Sheik 
Ibrahim,  are  told  by  the  Arab  guides.  His  tomb  for  many 
years  was  unknown  to  travellers,  but  in  1870  it  was 
restored  by  Rogers  Bey. 

The  next  group  of  mausolea  to  be  visited  are  those 
popularly  known  as  the  Tombs  of  the  Mamelukes.  Owing 
to  the  comprehensive  nature  of  this  title,  which  would 
equally  apply  to  the  tombs  in  the  Eastern  Cemetery  (Tombs 
of  the  Caliphs),  it  is  a  little  misleading.  Practically  noth- 
ing remains  of  these  tombs  but  the  minarets,  domes,  and 
some  portions  of  the  outer  walls.  There  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  any  systematic  or  thorough  antiquarian  exam- 


THE    TOMBS    OF   THE    CALIPHS.  165 

ination  of  the  ruins,  —  the  science  of  Egyptology  not  being 
supposed  to  concern  itself  with  monuments  of  later  date 
than  the  Roman  period,  —  so  that  hardly  anything  is 
known  of  the  builders.  The  most  important  of  these  Mos- 
lem mortuary  chapels  belong  to  the  period  of  the  Baharide 
Mameluke  Sultans,  making  them  about  a  century  older  than 
those  in  the  Kait  Bey  Cemetery.  This  may  account  for 
their  more  ruinous  condition.  "  The  whole  of  this  region,'' 
Baedeker  informs  us,  "is  still  used  as  a  Moslem  burial- 
ground,  and  in  some  cases  the  ancient  mausolea  have  been 
converted  into  family  burial-places." 

South  of  this  ruined  necropolis,  which,  however,  at  a 
distance,  with  its  lofty  and  elegant  carved  minarets,  does 
not  prepare  the  spectator  for  the  scanty  ruins  remaining  of 
the  mosques  themselves,  —  in  some  cases  the  minarets 
alone  being  erect,  —  are  the  group  of  mausolea  containing 
the  tombs  of  the  Khedivial  family.  The  tomb  of  the  well- 
meaning  but  somewhat  weak  sovereign  Tewfik  —  the  near- 
est approach  to  a  constitutional  ruler,  perhaps,  that  Egypt 
has  ever  had — will  probably  be  the  most  interesting  to 
sight-seers. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  funeral,  a  large  number  of  buffa- 
loes formed  part  of  the  procession,  for  the  widow  of  the 
Khedive  had  given  orders  that  a  thousand  poor  persons 
should  be  fed  daily  for  forty  days  at  the  tomb-side.  This 
was  quite  in  accordance  with  Oriental  customs,  and  in  its 
object  it  bears  a  strong  analogy  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
practice  of  bequeathing  smns  of  money  to  pay  for  masses 
for  the  repose  of  the  testator's  soul. 

The  curious  custom  is  well  described  by  Mr.  Pollard  in 
his  "  Land  of  the  Monuments."  This  writer  had  witnessed 
the  characteristic  funeral  banquet  a  few  days  after  the 
ceremony.  A  large  space  near  the  tomb  had  been  covered 
in  for  the  crowd  of  poor  Cairenes  who  were  to  take  part  in 
this  commemorative  banquet.     In  the  centre  was  a  small 


156  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

tent,  which  enclosed  the  royal  tomb,  which  was  covered 
with  dark  crimson  cloth.  Six  imaums  (Moslem  priests)  sat 
on  the  floor  chanting,  or  rather  droning,  a  ritual  in  a  low 
monotone.  The  European  visitors  who  were  attracted  by 
the  strange  spectacle,  on  leaving  their  cards  with  one  of 
the  attendants,  were  supplied  with  coffee  and  cigarettes,  and 
then  conducted  to  a  large  courtyard  adjoining,  where  about 
five  hundred  poor  people  were  seated  on  the  ground  in  cir- 
cles or  messes  of  about  a  dozen.  There  were  a  few  police, 
but  the  huge  crowd  of  hungry  and  expectant  diners  was 
remarkably  orderly.  Soon  appeared  a  procession  of  men 
bearing  on  their  heads  large  trays  piled  up  with  pieces  of 
coarse  bread  cooked  with  rice,  followed  by  others  carrying 
trays  of  buffalo  beef  boiled.  A  tray  being  placed  in  the* 
centre  of  each  little  circle,  the  group  at  once  helped  them- 
selves with  all  the  eagerness  of  those  to  whom  meat  was  a 
rarity,  only  indulged  in  on  important  festivities.  After  the 
meal,  water  was  handed  round  in  small  brass  bowls.  Then 
another  detachment  of  natives  took  their  places  after  the 
courtyard  had  been  cleared,  were  quickly  formed  into 
messes,  and  the  meal  was  served  as  before.  "  It  was  a 
picturesque,  interesting,  and  impressive  scene,  singularly 
Oriental,  and  certainly  one  never  to  be  forgotten.  There 
was  in  it  a  suggestion  of  the  scene  recorded  in  the  Gospels 
of  the  feeding  of  the  multitudes,  in  external  appearance, 
orderly  and  regular  disposition  of  rows  on  the  ground,  and 
the  manner  in  which  they  fed  themselves  with  the  hand,  — 
a  custom  which  is  still  general  in  the  East." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   NATIONAL   MUSEUM. 

Antiquity  appears  to  have  begun 
Long  after  thy  primeval  race  was  won. 
Thou  couldst  develop,  if  that  withered  tongue 
Might  tell  us  what  those  sightless  orbs  have  seen, 
How  the  world  looked  when  it  was  fresh  and  young, 
And  the  great  Deluge  still  had  left  it  green  ; 
Or  was  it  then  so  old  that  History's  pages 
Contained  no  record  of  its  early  ages  ? 

Address  to  a  Mummy Horace  Smith. 

THE  Palace  of  Ghizeh,  the  old  Haremlik  (Palace  of  the 
Harem)  of  Ismail  Pacha,  has  been,  since  1889,  when 
the  antiquities  were  removed  from  Boulak,  the  home  of  the 
National  Museum  of  Antiquities.  The  building,  huge 
rambling  structure  that  it  is,  with  nearly  one  hundred 
rooms,  is  scarcely  large  enough  to  hold  this  vast  collection. 
The  Egyptian  Government  has  long  felt  the  urgent  neces- 
sity of  having  a  building  specially  constructed  for  a  museum 
for  this  invaluable  collection  of  antiquities.  Not  only  is 
the  Ghizeh  Palace  too  small,  but  the  danger  from  fire  is  a 
very  serious  one.  The  foundations  of  a  new  Egyptological 
Museum,  which  is  to  be  thoroughly  fire-proof,  have  recently 
(1897)  been  laid,  and  the  building  will  probably  be  com- 
pleted by  the  year  1900. 

The  museum  contains,  not  only  the  largest,  but  the  most 
valuable  collection  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  world. 
It  is  also  considered  by  scholars  and  Egyptologists  that  in 
point  of  arrangement  and  classification  of  the  objects  col- 
lected here,  the  museum  may  serve  as  a  model  to  most  of 

157 


158  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  great  museums  of  Europe.  As  a  preliminary  to  the 
study  of  Egyptology,  or  even  for  an  intelligent  understand- 
ing of  the  monuments  of  the  Upper  Nile,  a  course  of  visits 
here  is  almost  indispensable. 

Since  1892  the  museum  has  been  much  enlarged,  and 
now  contains  some  ninety  rooms,  arranged,  for  the  most 
part,  according  to  chronological  order.  This  book  is  not 
intended  as  a  guide-book,  so  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  convoy  the  visitor  through  the  collec- 
tion on  any  fixed  plan. 

The  origin,  scope,  and  inestimable  value  of  this  museum 
is  so  admirably  summed  up  by  Murray,  in  the  latest  edi- 
tion of  his  Handbook,  that  his  observations  are  worth 
quoting  verbatim  et  literatim : 

"  This  museum  contains,  with  the  exception  of  historical  papyri, 
of  which  it  does  not  possess  any  at  all  equal  to  those  in  the  British 
Museum,"  —  and  we  might  add,  to  those  in  the  Turin  Egyptological 
Museum,  —  "  the  most  instructive  and  valuable  collection  of  Egyptian 
antiquities  in  the  world ;  the  result,  with  very  few  exceptions,  of  the 
indefatigable  labours  and  researches  of  Mariette  Pacha  and  his  suc- 
cessors, who  have  spent  many  years  in  studying  and  excavating  the 
old  monuments  and  ruins  of  Egypt.  At  the  accession  of  the  Khedive 
Ismail,  in  1863,  everything  connected  with  old  Egyptian  history  was 
placed  under  the  charge  of  Mariette  Pacha,  and  all  digging  and  ex- 
cavating by  others  forbidden ;  and,  as  a  result,  the  objects  which 
formerly  would  have  enriched  foreign  museums  or  private  collections, 
are  exhibited  together  in  the  most  appropriate  place  for  their  study 
and  examination,  in  the  capital  of  the  country  whose  ancient  history 
they  illustrate.  Apart  from  the  richness  and  number  of  the  articles 
it  contains,  one  great  superiority  enjoyed  by  this  museum  over  all 
others  is,  that  the  places  whence  every  object  comes  are  accurately 
known ;  and,  moreover,  any  fragment,  however  small,  which  seems 
to  possess  any  historic  or  scientific  interest,  has  been  preserved." 

Even  to  vi&it  one-tenth  of  the  rooms  which  compose  this 
magnificent  collection  of  antiquities  means  a  whole  day's 
hard  work ;  and  in  attempting  to  give  the  most  superficial 


THE   NATIONAL   MUSEUM.  159 

sketch  of  its  principal  contents,  one  is  overwhelmed  by  the 
appalling  magnitude  of  the  task.  The  mere  fact  that 
there  are  not  far  short  of  one  hundred  rooms,  loaded  with 
the  art  treasures  of  all  the  dynasties  down  to  the  Ptolemies, 
is  alone  staggering  to  the  ordinary  visitor,  who  makes  no 
claim  to  Egyptological  lore.  One  is  tempted  to  reiterate 
the  reminder  that  the  "  City  of  the  Caliphs  "  is  not  meant 
as  a  substitute  for  the  standard  guide-books.  And  yet,  even 
the  erudite  Murray  recognises  the  difficulty  of  serving  as  a 
vade-mecum  to  this  vast  treasure-house  of  early  Egyptian 
civilisation,  and  devotes  barely  a  page  to  what  the  more 
conscientious  Baedeker  dedicates  nearly  forty  pages  of  his 
erudite,  but  somewhat  stony,  prose. 

Let  us,  however,  cast  a  hasty  glance  at  some  of  the  more 
striking  features  of  the  Museum.  We  have  scarcely  begun 
our  pilgrimage,  when  a  remarkable  wooden  statuette,  known 
as  the  "  Village  Sheik,"  commands  attention.  This  was 
found  in  a  tomb  near  Sakkarah,  by  Mariette.  It  is  one  of 
the  earliest  specimens  of  the  sculptor's  art  in  existence, 
being  attributed  to  the  fourth  dynasty.  It  owes  its  popu- 
lar title  to  the  fact  that  when  it  was  brought  to  the  surface 
the  Arabs  greeted  it  with  shouts  of  "El-Sheik  El-beled" 
(the  Village  Sheik).  In  this  room  also  is  the  mummy  of 
Aalimes  I.  (Amasis),  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  For  some 
unknown  reason  —  for  the  objects  are  usually  arranged 
according  to  dynasties  —  it  is  placed  here,  and  not  with 
the  other  mummies  of  that  period. 

Of  far  greater  artistic  and  antiquarian  value  than  the 
"  Village  Sheik,"  is  the  green  diorite  statue  (Room  5)  of 
Chrephren,  the  builder  of  the  second  Pyramid.  The  model- 
ling is  wonderfully  correct  and  lifelike,  and  the  muscles 
would  delight  an  anatomist.  It  was  discovered  by  Mariette, 
in  a  well  in  the  Temple  of  the  Sphinx.  Chrephren  is  repre- 
sented seated  on  a  throne  which  is  decorated  with  the  papy- 
rus and  lotus  intertwined,  which  symbolises  the  union  of 


160  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  On  the  pedestal  is  inscribed  : 
"The  image  of  the  golden  Horus,  Chrephren,  beautiful 
god,  lord  of  diadems."  Dr.  Wallis-Budge,  who  has  written 
the  most  complete  and  most  intelligible  popular  account  of 
the  Museum  of  any  hitherto  published,  considers  this  statue 
"  one  of  the  most  remarkable  pieces  of  Egyptian  sculpture 
extant." 

In  the  first  room  on  the  ground  floor  is  a  remarkable 
painting,  which  is  particularly  interesting  as  the  oldest 
specimen  in  existence  known  to  antiquarians.  It  was  dis- 
covered in  a  tomb-temple  at  Medoum.  The  picture,  which 
is  painted  in  water-colours,  the  pigments  retaining  their 
colouring  in  a  remarkable  manner,  represents  geese,  and 
the  execution  shows  considerable  skill  and  knowledge  of 
draughtsmanship.  The  picture  dates  from  the  fourth 
dynasty,  so  that  we  are  looking  at  the  work  of  an  artist 
who  lived  from  five  to  six  thousand  years  ago. 

The  Hall  of  Jewels  (No.  T)  is  of  special  interest  to  lady 
visitors.  Formerly  the  finest  collection  of  ancient  Egyptian 
jewelry  were  those  of  Queen  Aah-Hotep  (mother  of  Aah- 
mes  I.),  who  flourished  about  1600  b.  c,  which  were  found 
with  the  mummy  of  the  Queen,  in  1860,  at  Thebes.  These, 
however,  are  quite  eclipsed  in  beauty  by  those  discovered 
by  M.  de  Morgan  (the  successor  as  curator  of  the  Museum 
of  the  great  Egyptologist  Mariette  Pacha)  in  the  Pyra- 
mid of  Dashur,  near  Sakkarah,  in  1894.  These  are, 
perhaps,  the  oldest  jewels  in  the  world,  dating  from  the 
twelfth  dynasty.  The  gold  ornaments  consist  of  bracelets, 
necklaces,  pectorals,  etc.,  of  the  Princess  Hathor-Sat.  The 
workmanship  and  design  are  very  beautiful,  and  show  the 
high  pitch  of  artistic  skill  attained  by  the  ancient  Egyptian 
goldsmiths.  Among  the  most  beautiful  objects  of  the  earlier 
find  is  a  model  in  gold  of  the  sacred  bark  of  the  dead, 
with  Amasis  I.  seated  in  the  stern.  The  rowers  are  of  sil- 
ver, the  chariot  of  wood  and  bronze.     A  gold  head-dress 


THE    NATIONAL    MUSEUM.  161 

inlaid  with  precious  stones  is  another  object  of  exquisitely 
beautiful  workmanship. 

Still  making  our  way  through  the  lower  rooms,  there  is 
nothing  of  great  attraction  to  the  ordinary  visitor  till  we 
reach  Room  16,  where  is  the  famous  Sphinx  of  the  Shep- 
herd Kings,  cut  from  a  block  of  black  granite.  This  statue, 
with  its  features  so  different  from  the  Egyptian  type,  is,  no 
doubt,  of  special  interest  to  the  anthropologist  and  student 
of  ethnology,  but  artistically  it  is  disappointing.  It  was 
discovered  by  Mariette  at  Tanis  (Zoan  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment), in  1863,  and  its  origin  and  period  are  still  a  bone  of 
contention  with  Egyptologists.  Mariette  considers  it  was 
made  for  one  of  the  Hyksos  sovereigns,  popularly  known 
as  the  Shepherd  Kings.  Dr.  Wallis-Budge,  however,  attrib- 
utes the  statue  to  an  earlier  period. 

In  Room  40  is  the  famous  Decree  of  Canopus,  perhaps 
to  the  historian  the  most  interesting  object  in  the  whole 
Museum.  In  all  probability,  had  not  the  still  more  famous 
Rosetta  stone  —  now  one  of  the  most  valued  treasures  in 
the  British  Museum  —  been  first  found,  this  tablet,  with 
its  trheefold  inscription,  would  have  proved  the  key  to  the 
language  and  writings  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.  Like  the 
Rosetta  stone,  it  is  inscribed  in  hieroglyphics,  with  a  popu- 
lar translation  in  demotic  (non-pictorial  writing)  characters, 
and  Greek.  The  decree  was  made  at  Canopus,  by  an  assem- 
bly of  priests,  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  III.  It  ends  with  a 
resolution  ordering  a  copy  of  this  inscription  to  be  placed 
in  every  large  temple.  Yet  only  two  of  these  copies  have 
ever  been  discovered ;  one  is  at  this  Museum  (placed  next 
the  original) ,  and  the  other  at  the  Louvre  Museum. 

Of  the  recent  acquisitions,  the  most  interesting  is  the 
black  granite  stela  which  was  discovered  by  Professor 
Petrie  at  Thebes,  in  1896.  It  is  a  kind  of  palimpsest 
inscription,  for  there  are  signs  of  erasures  of  an  earlier 
inscription  by  Amen-Hotep  III.  (b.  c.  1500),  under  one  by 


162  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Seti  I.  (Mer-en-Ptah).  This  stela  is  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  Biblical  students,  as  on  the  back  of  the  stone 
is  a  long  description  describing  wars  with  the  Libyans  and 
Syrians,  in  which  occurs  the  phrase,  "  The  people  of  Israel 
is  spoiled :  it  hath  no  Seed."  This  is  the  ''first  allusion  to 
the  Israelites  by  name  found  as  yet  on  any  Egyptian  monu- 
ment, and  is  several  centuries  older  than  any  allusion  to 
them  in  Assyrian  records."  (Murray's  "Handbook  to 
Egypt.") 

Perhaps  the  most  popular  features  in  the  whole  museum 
are  the  famous  royal  mummies  of  the  Pharaohs.  These 
are  a  recent  acquisition,  and  the  story  of  their  find  is  rich 
in  dramatic  episodes,  and  is  not  without  its  humorous  side, 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  amusing  narrative  of  Mr.  H.  D. 
Traill,  in  "  From  Cairo  to  the  Soudan  Frontier,"  parts  of 
which  I  quote  below.  The  tombs  and  conjectural  sites 
were  not,  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  royal 
mummies  by  the  Arabs,  as  well  guarded  as  now,  and  a 
large  portion  of  the  natives  of  the  Theban  plain  for  many 
years  supplemented  their  earnings  by  the  "  harvest  of  the 
tombs,"  undetected  by  the  native  police.  It  seems  that 
a  certain  Arab,  called  Ahmed,  still  known  at  Luxor  as  the 
"tomb-robber,"  —  a  sobriquet  of  which  he  is  inordinately 
proud,  —  while  digging  with  his  companions  in  the  "  Tombs 
of  the  Kings"  on  the  search  for  antiquities,  struck  upon 
a  shaft,  which  Ahmed  descended,  and  saw  at  once  that  he 
had  hit  upon  a  vast  mortuary  chamber,  which  meant  untold 
riches  to  the  discoverer.  He  cleverly  prevented  the  neces- 
sity of  sharing  the  booty  with  his  fellows  who  had  lowered 
him  down  the  shaft,  by  calling  upon  them  in  an  agitated 
voice  to  haul  him  up  to  the  surface.  On  rejoining  them, 
he  declared  that  he  had  seen  a  ginn  (evil  spirit).  Ahmed 
was  as  cautious  as  he  was  resourceful,  and  "thinking  to 
give  additional  colour  to  his  story  of  the  tombs'  being 
haunted  by  an  evil  spirit  (which  is  supposed  to  manifest  its 


THE    NATIONAL    MUSEUMt  163 

presence  by  an  intolerable  stench),"  he  threw,  one  night,  a 
donkey  down  the  shaft. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  every  one  in  the  neighbourhood 
was  firmly  convinced  that  an  unclean  spirit  lived  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft,  and  forthwith  Ahmed  had  the  monop- 
oly in  the  lucrative  find  of  antiquities,  which  he  gradually 
disposed  of  to  the  foreign  visitors  at  Luxor.  This,  of 
course,  aroused  suspicion  in  the  minds  of  Egyptologists, 
and  in  1881  Brugsch  Bey  and  M.  de  Maspero  made  their 
celebrated  expedition  to  Thebes  in  spite  of  the  sweltering 
summer  heat,  and  Ahmed,  having  been  betrayed  by  his 
brother,  conducted  the  two  savants  to  the  spot.  The  sen- 
sations of  Brugsch  Bey  on  the  discovery  of  this  most 
stupendous  of  all  archaeological  finds  is  thus  graphically 
described ; 

"My  astonishment  was  so  overpowering  that  I  scarcely  knew 
whether  I  was  awake,  or  whether  it  was  only  a  mocking  dream. 
Resting  on  a  coffin,  in  order  to  recover  from  my  intense  excitement, 
I  mechanically  cast  my  eyes  over  the  coffin-lid,  and  distinctly  saw  the 
name  of  Seti  I.,  father  of  Rameses  II.,  both  belonging  to  the  nine- 
teenth dynasty.  A  few  steps  farther  on,  in  a  simple  wooden  coffin, 
with  his  hands  crossed  on  his  breast,  lay  Rameses  II.,  the  great 
Sesostris  himself.  The  farther  I  advanced,  the  greater  the  wealth 
displayed:  thirty-six  coffins,  all  belonging  to  kings,  or  queens,  or 
princes,  or  princesses." 

Even  the  least  imaginative  of  travellers  can  hardly  help 
being  impressed  at  beholding  the  actual  features  of  the 
Pharaoh  of  the  Oppression,  now  brought  to  light  after  a 
lapse  of  thirty  centuries ;  and  yet  there  is  another  aspect 
of  the  case.  After  inspecting  these  disinterred  monarchs, 
there  comes  an  uneasy  feeling  that  as  representatives  of 
a  cultured  race  we  are  guilty  of  the  grossest  vandalism, 
and  as  Christians,  of  something  approaching  to  sacrilege, 
as  well  as  setting  a  bad  example  to  the  natives  in 
rooting  up  the  bones  of  the  ancient  kings  and  making  them 


164  THE    CITr    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

a  kind  of  side-show  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  scientists,  or 
to  provide  entertainment  for  the  gaping  tourist.  Egyptolo- 
gists and  scholars  may  smile  with  contemptuous  tolerance 
at  this  view  as  mere  sentiment,  but  it  is  one  that  is  held 
by  a  considerable  number  of  intelligent  visitors  to  Egypt. 

Mr.  Eraser  Rae's  vigorous  protest  is  worth  quoting : 
"To  expose  the  remains  of  a  man  or  woman  to  public 
view  in  the  Gizeh  Museum  is  a  sickening  and  sad  spectacle. 
Knowledge  may  be  increased  by  rifling  the  sepulchres  of 
the  ancients  and  groping  among  the  cerements  of  the  dead, 
but  I  question  if  a  single  being  is  benefited  by  gazing  at 
the  leathern  lineaments  and  limbs  of  ancient  priests  and 
kings."  The  legitimate  curiosity  of  Egyptologists  and 
scientists  should  be  satisfied  when  the  remains  have  been 
photographed,  identified,  and  scientifically  examined,  and 
the  remains  should  then  be  restored  to  their  tomb.  In  no 
country  are  the  remains  of  mortal  men  treated  with  greater 
indignity  than  in  Egypt.  Yet  a  parallel  suggests  itself 
irresistibly.  Imagine  the  indignation  of  a  highly  cultured 
Bostonian  if,  at  some  remote  future.  Mount  Auburn's  beau- 
tiful cemetery  should  be  treated  as  a  mine  in  which  shafts 
were  sunk  for  the  discovery  of  human  remains,  to  be  sold 
to  foreigners  as  curios,  or  exposed  in  the  chief  museums  of 
the  country ! 

What,  for  instance,  can  be  more  opposed  to  all  canons  of 
good  taste,  to  say  nothing  of  art,  than  the  exhibition  of  the 
gruesome  relics  of  King  Seqenen  Ra  (seventeenth  dynasty), 
who  was  killed  while  fighting  against  one  of  the  Hyksos 
kings,  some  thirty-five  hundred  years  ago.  The  appear- 
ance of  this  mutilated  mummy  is  graphically  and  forcibly 
described  in  the  following  sketch  by  Mr.  Moberly  Bell: 
"  Look  at  him  closely  and  read  his  history,  told  as  graphic- 
ally as  if  by  Macaulay,  and  perhaps  more  truthfully.  That 
wound  there,  inflicted  by  a  mace  or  hatchet,  which  has  cleft 
the  left  cheek,  broken  the  lower  jaw,  and  laid  bare  the  side 


THE   NATIONAL   MUSEUM.  165 

teeth,  was  probably  the  first,  and  must  have  felled  him  to 
the  ground.  See  there,  how  his  foes  fell  on  him !  That 
downward  hatchet-blow  split  off  an  enormous  splinter  of 
the  skull.  That  other  blow,  just  above  the  right  eye,  must 
have  been  a  lance  wound,  passing  through  his  temple,  and 
probably  finished  him.  Look  at  the  agony  in  the  face,  and 
the  tongue  bitten  through  in  anguish.  He  gave  his  life 
dearly,  did  Seqenen  Ra ;  and  after  the  fight  the  body  has 
been  embalmed  and  had  decent  though  hurried  sepulture." 
There  is  a  touch  of  unconscious  irony  in  this  reference  to 
"  decent  sepulture,"  when  we  consider  that  this  ill-fated 
monarch,  after  enjoying  undisturbed  burial  for  so  many 
thousand  years,  has  been  at  length  exhumed  to  serve  as  a 
spectacle  for  nineteenth  century  tourists,  and  as  a  peg  for 
their  flippant  cynicism. 

It  is  usually  supposed  that  embalming  the  dead  and  con- 
verting them  into  mummies  was  the  earliest  and  universal 
mode  of  disposing  of  the  dead  among  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
Recent  researches  have,  however,  tended  to  discredit  this 
popular  view. 

Fresh  light  has  been  thrown  on  the  methods  of  burial 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians  by  a  remarkably  able  and  sugges- 
tive article  in  a  recent  number  of  the  "  Contemporary 
Review"  (June,  1897),  by  Prof.  Flinders  Petrie.  In  this 
article,  the  well-known  Egyptologist  ventilates  a  very  re- 
markable but  highly  plausible  theory,  which  attempts  to 
show  that  a  kind  of  modified,  or  what  can  be  better  described 
as  ceremonial,  cannibalism  obtained  during  the  age  of  the 
pyramid-building  kings  (?  circa  3500  b.  c.)  of  the  Ancient 
Empire. 

While  excavating  among  the  tombs  of  that  age  at  Deshas- 
heh,  some  sixty  miles  south  of  Cairo,  in  the  winter  of  1896-7, 
Doctor  Petrie  was  astonished  to  find,  after  a  careful  exami- 
nation of  the  bodies,  that  a  considerable  number  had  been 
most  carefully  and  elaborately  "  boned  "  after  death.     The 


166  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

bones  of  the  skeletons  had  in  fact  been  most  carefully 
rearranged  after  removal  of  the  flesh  and  tissues,  and  the 
skeleton  carefully  reconstructed  and  buried.  This  wholesale 
cutting  up  of  the  bodies  could  not  have  been  due  to  plunder, 
injury,  or  the  act  of  enemies  towards  the  victims  of  war, 
—  the  most  natural  explanation,  —  as  was  first  conclusively 
proved  from  the  number  of  female  skeletons  thus  treated, 
the  careful  method  of  burial,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
tombs.  The  Professor's  conclusion  is  that  this  unusual 
method  of  sepulture  points  to  an  adoption  of  a  modified  form 
of  cannibalism,  akin  to  that  of  the  later  Libyan  invaders 
who  overran  Egypt  about  3000  B.  c.  It  is  well  known  that 
these  tribes  practised  a  kind  of  cannibalism.  Doctor  Petrie 
considers  that  in  all  probability  the  actual  consumption  of 
the  bodies  of  the  dead  —  which,  by  the  way,  was  often  done 
from  the  idea  of  honouring  the  dead,  or  of  benefiting  the 
consumer,  who  would  thus  attract  to  himself  the  good  qual- 
ities of  the  person  eaten  —  was  not  at  that  time  the  essential 
part  of  the  ceremony ;  but  the  flesh  was  carefully  removed, 
bones  separated,  and  so  forth,  as  if  actual  cannibalism  were 
to  take  place. 

This  mode  of  sepulture  was  later  modified  by  the  influ- 
ence of  a  ruling  race,  who  practised  embalming  and  mum- 
mification, with  all  its  attendant  complex  ceremonies.  This, 
in  short,  is  an  outline  of  Professor  Petrie's  theory. 

Though  the  Ghizeh  Museum  is  unquestionably,  taken  as 
a  whole,  the  finest  Egyptological  museum  in  the  world, 
some  of  the  departments  are  poorly  represented,  notably  the 
collections  of  historical  papyri,  scarabs,  and  Graeco-Roman 
antiquities.  More  valuable  papyri  are  to  be  found  in  the 
British  Museum,  the  Louvre,  and  in  the  Museum  of  Egyptian 
Antiquities  in  Turin.  This  latter  museum  contains  many 
of  the  antiquities  collected  by  Napoleon's  commission  of 
savants  at  the  time  of  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt. 
The  famous  Priss^  papyrus,  in  the  Biblioth^que  Nationale 


THE    NATIOIS^AL    MUSEUM.  167 

of  Paris,  is  the  oldest  in  the  world,  and  was  written  about 
2500  B.  c. 

The  Turin  papyrus,  the  most  valuable  of  any  yet  dis- 
covered, was  the  principal  source  from  which  Brugsch  and 
other  historians  drew  their  Egyptian  chronologies.  It  con- 
tains a  complete  list  of  all  the  sovereigns,  from  the  quasi- 
mythical  god-kings  down  to  those  of  the  Hyksos  dynasty 
(B.  c.  4400  to  B.  c.  1700).  Unfortunately,  the  papyrus  is 
in  parts  almost  undecipherable,  so  that  the  names  of  some 
of  the  kings  in  the  usually  accepted  list  are  partly  con- 
jectural. 

In  former  days,  Dr.  Wallis-Budge  observes,  the  collection 
of  scarabs  was  very  large  and  complete ;  but  the  best  have 
been  disposed  of  at  various  times,  and  many  private  collec- 
tors, not  to  speak  of  the  great  museums  of  Europe,  possess 
far  more  complete  and  more  valuable  collections- 

As  to  Ptolemaic  and  other  Graeco-Roman  antiquities, 
the  authorities  of  the  Cairo  Museum  disclaim  any  desire  to 
add  to  their  collection,  as  the  Museum  at  Alexandria,  which 
was  opened  in  1895,  was  specially  built  to  preserve  the  col- 
lection of  all  Greek  and  Roman  antiquities  discovered  in 
Egypt,  and  many  of  the  objects  in  the  Ghizeh  galleries 
have  been  transferred  to  the  Alexandrian  Museum. 

Just  as  a  visit  to  the  monuments  of  Upper  Egypt  should 
be  supplemented  by  a  visit  to  the  matchless  collection  of 
antiquities  enshrined  in  the  Ghizeh  Palace,  so  it  is  essential 
for  a  right  understanding  and  appreciation  of  mediaeval 
Saracenic  art  to  visit  the  Museum  of  Arabian  Art  in  con- 
nection with  the  exploration  of  the  mosques.  The  Museum 
is  in  a  temporary  building  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Mosque 
El-Hakim,  and  consists  chiefly  of  objects  of  artistic  or 
antiquarian  interest,  collected  from  ruined  mosques  or 
rescued  from  the  hands  of  the  dealers  in  antiquities,  who 
for  years,  with  the  cognisance  of  the  guardians,  had 
been  pillaging  certain  of  these  mosques.     The  Museum  is 


168  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

mainly  due  to  the  zeal  of  the  late  Rogers  Bey,  and  to  Franz 
Pacha,  formerly  director  mader  the  Wakfs  Administration. 
In  its  temporary  home  the  collection  is  rather  cramped, 
and  the  Government  has  recently  voted  a  sum  of  .£32,000 
for  a  special  building,  the  foundation-stone  of  which  was 
laid  in  the  spring  of  the  present  year  (1897). 

The  most  beautiful  and  characteristic  objects  will  be 
found  in  Rooms  1,  3,  and  5.  In  the  first  room  is  the  in- 
comparable collection  of  enamelled  mosque-lamps.  Most 
of  these  have  been  taken  from  the  mosques,  especially  that 
of  Sultan  Hassan.  The  dates  of  these  lamps  are  of  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries,  but  their 
place  of  manufacture  is  unknown.  The  earlier  of  these 
lamps,  which  constitute  the  chief  glory  of  the  Museum, 
are  in  the  purest  style  of  Arabic  decoration,  though  probably 
the  fifteenth  century  ones  are  not  indigenous,  but  imported 
from  Murano.  Scarcely  a  hundred  of  these  lamps  are 
extant,  and  most  are  to  be  found  in  this  unique  collection. 
In  Rooms  5  and  7  is  a  large  and  representative  collection 
of  Mushrabiyeh  (lattice-work)  and  mosaic  woodwork.  Other 
rooms  contain  specimens  of  metal-work,  faience,  stucco, 
pottery,  etc. 

In  one  essential  respect  this  Museum,  says  Mr.  Stanley 
Lane-Poole,  differs  from  others.  The  objects  here  are  rela- 
tive, and  were  not  designed  as  separate  works  of  art.  They 
are,  in  fact,  dependent  upon  the  monuments  to  which  they 
once  belonged.  Most  of  the  objects  consist  of  portions  of 
the  decoration  and  furniture  of  mosques  and  private  houses. 
This,  of  course,  makes  it  the  more  regrettable  that,  owing 
to  the  neglected  condition  of  the  mosques,  they  cannot  be 
seen  in  situ,  where  they  would  be  more  in  harmony  with 
their  environment. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   ACROPOLIS   OF   CAIRO. 

Ambition,  like  a  torrent,  ne'er  looks  back ; 
It  is  a  swelling,  and  the  last  affection 
A  great  mind  can  put  off.     It  is  a  rebel 
Both  to  the  soul  and  reason,  and  enforces 
All  laws,  all  conscience ;  tramples  on  Religion, 
And  offers  violence  to  Loyalty. 

Ben  Jonson. 

THE  citadel  which  frowns  over  Cairo  appears,  at  a  dis- 
tance, to  overhang  the  city,  and,  no  doubt,  in  the  age 
of  Saladin  its  position  was  as  impregnable  as  Gibraltar 
or  Malta.  It  is,  however,  completely  commanded  by  the 
Mokattam  Hills  immediately  behind  it,  and  in  1805  Me- 
hemet  Ali  was  able  to  rake  it  completely  with  his  cannon 
posted  on  these  heights,  and  took  it  with  little  difficulty. 
Its  walls  are  built  of  the  stones  which  formed  the  casing 
of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  this  waste  of  precious  material 
seems  especially  wanton  and  inexcusable,  considering  the 
proximity  of  the  Gebel  Mokattam,  which  is  one  vast  quarry 
of  excellent  building  material. 

The  great  adventurer  who,  with  some  reason,  has  been 
styled  the  Oriental  Napoleon,  is,  indeed,  the  genius  loci  in 
this  grim  fortress.  His  is  the  one  dominant  figure  in  the 
later  history  of  Egypt,  and  a  slight  sketch  of  his  career 
may  conveniently  be  given  here,  when  describing  the  scene 
of  his  triumphs  and  his  crimes. 

Mehemet  All's  life  is  as  romantic  and  remarkable,  and  as 
rich  in  eventful  episodes,  as  that  of  his  great  namesake  the 


170  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

founder  of  the  Moslem  faith,  or  as  that  of  Saladin,  or,  to 
come  to  modern  times,  as  that  of  Napoleon,  or  Bernadotte. 
It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  Mehemet  Ali,  Napoleon  I., 
and  Wellington,  each  came  into  the  world  in  the  same  year 
— 1769.  Mehemet  came  of  humble  parentage,  his  father 
being  a  fisherman,  and  he  does  not  appear  to  have  received 
any  education  at  all.  In  fact,  even  when  Viceroy  of  Egypt, 
he  scarcely  knew  how  to  write.  His  boyhood  was  adven- 
turous, and  when  quite  a  lad  he  distinguished  himself  by 
leading  an  attack  on  some  pirates  who  had  been  pillaging 
the  coast,  driving  them  off,  and  recovering  the  spoil.  This 
early  display  of  promise  brought  him  to  the  notice  of  the 
governor  of  the  province,  and,  helped,  it  is  said,  by  the 
influence  of  the  wife  of  this  functionary,  he  succeeded 
him  in  office  on  his  death,  and  married  his  widow. 
When  Napoleon  invaded  Egypt,  Mehemet  saw  his  oppor- 
tunity, and,  being  given  the  command  of  a  troop  of  irregu- 
lars, sailed  for  his  future  kingdom.  He  distinguished 
himself  conspicuously  in  this  short  campaign,  and  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  After  the  evacuation  of 
Egypt  by  the  French  troops,  the  Mameluke  beys — who  had, 
ever  since  Egypt  became  a  Turkish  pachalic,  regarded  the 
Turkish  viceroy  as  a  mere  roi  faineant,  and  had  practically 
obtained  control  of  the  country  —  attempted  to  set  up  a  vice- 
roy of  their  own,  and  rebelled  against  the  Turkish  governor, 
Khosref  Pacha.  Mehemet,  foreseeing  on  whose  side  victory 
was  likely  to  remain,  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  agitation 
against  Turkish  rule,  and  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  beys. 
Summoned  to  a  midnight  conference  by  the  Pacha,  ostensi- 
bly to  discuss  the  grievances  of  the  soldiery,  Mehemet,  fully 
realising  that  the  moment  for  overt  action  had  arrived,  sent 
a  polite  acceptance  of  the  significant  invitation.  "  Then, 
summoning  his  Albanian  soldiery,"  —  I  quote  Warburton's 
spirited  description  of  this  dramatic  scene,  —  "  gave  them 
the  Pacha's  message.    '  I  am  sent  for  by  the  Pacha,  and  you 


THE    ACROPOLIS    OF    CAIRO.  171 

know  what  destiny  awaits  the  advocate  of  your  wrongs  in 
a  midnight  audience/  he  exclaimed.  '  I  will  go,  but  shall 
I  go  alone  ? '  Four  thousand  swords  flashed  back  the 
Albanians'  answer,  and  their  shout  of  fierce  defiance  gave 
Khosref  Pacha  warning  to  escape  to  the  Citadel ;  there,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  say,  he  declined  to  receive  his  dangerous 
guest.  '  Now,  then,'  said  Mehemet  Ali,  *  Cairo  is  for  sale, 
and  the  strongest  sword  will  buy  it.'  The  Albanians  ap- 
plauded the  pithy  sentiment,  and  instantly  proceeded  to  put 
it  into  execution  by  electing  Mehemet  Ali  as  their  leader. 
He  opened  the  gates  of  the  city  to  the  hostile  Mamelukes, 
defeated  Khosref  Pacha,  took  him  prisoner  at  Damietta, 
and  was  acknowledged  as  general  of  the  army  by  the  beys, 
in  gratitude  for  his  services." 

After  the  defeat  of  Khosref,  the  common  enemy  of  the 
Albanian  and  Mameluke  soldiery,  a  great  rivalry  sprang  up 
between  the  two  chief  Mameluke  beys,  Osman  El-Bardesee 
and  Elf ee,  who  were  virtually  the  rulers  of  the  country, —  the 
government,  though  nominally  a  tributary  pachalic  of  the 
Porte,  being  really  a  military  oligarchy.  Mehemet,  though 
backed  by  his  Albanian  troops,  was  not  yet  strong  enough 
to  attack  the  Mameluke  leaders,  and  contented  himself  with 
stirring  up  dissensions  between  the  two  parties,  and  ingra- 
tiating himself  with  the  Cairenes  as  well  as  with  the  army. 
His  intrigues  against  El-Bardesee  were  crowned  with  suc- 
cess, and  showed  considerable  powers  of  statesmanship  and 
diplomacy.  The  Bey  was  both  governor  of  the  city  and 
commander  of  the  Albanian  troops;  so  Mehemet,  by  his 
agents,  incited  the  soldiers  to  demand  their  arrears  of  pay, 
—  a  perennial  grievance  with  these  mercenaries,  —  and  at 
the  same  time  he  encouraged  the  citizens  of  Cairo  to  resist 
the  heavy  contributions  levied  by  El-Bardesee  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  his  mutinous  troops.  The  Bey,  un- 
able to  make  headway  against  this  simultaneous  resistance, 
sought  safety  in  flight.      His  rival,  Elfee  Bey,  had  already 


172  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

fled.  Mehemet  Ali,  with  his  Albanians,  then  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Citadel,  and  while  awaiting  the  firman  for  the 
appointment  of  a  new  pacha,  assumed  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment. Khursheed  Pacha,  Mehemet's  nominee,  was  duly 
invested  with  the  viceroyalty ;  but  he  was  regarded  merely 
as  a  convenient  figurehead  by  Mehemet,  who,  in  a  short 
time,  having  by  intrigue  got  the  support  of  the  Mamelukes, 
was  himself  named  viceroy  in  1805.  In  the  next  year  his 
powerful  rivals  El-Bardesee  Bey  and  Elfee  Bey,  who  had 
still  a  considerable  following,  died,  and  left  Mehemet  with 
only  one  serious  enemy  to  fear, — the  Sultan,  who  was  jeal- 
ous of  his  powerful  vassal. 

In  1811  he  firmly  established  his  power  by  crushing  the 
turbulent  element  of  the  Mamelukes,  who  were  "  sacrificed 
as  a  hecatomb  to  the  peace  of  the  province."  The  only 
possible  palliation  for  this  great  blot  on  Mehemet  All's 
career,  by  which  he  "  waded  through  slaughter  to  a  throne," 
was  that  the  extermination  of  these  powerful  mercenaries 
was  necessary  for  the  security  of  his  throne,  and  he  had, 
himself,  some  reason  to  suspect  treachery  at  their  hands. 
At  all  events,  the  massacre  was  not  so  wantonly  cruel  as 
that  of  the  Janissaries,  some  ten  years  later,  by  his  suzerain 
Mahmoud  II.,  who  was  styled,  with  grim  irony,  Mahmoud 
the  Reformer. 

The  history  of  Egypt  for  the  next  thirty  years  is  simply 
the  history  of  Mehemet's  various  campaigns  of  conquest. 
Up  to  1831  his  victorious  career  went  on  unchecked.  In 
this  year,  after  taking  Acre  and  several  other  Syrian 
pachalics,  he  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  declare  war 
with  the  Porte,  who  had  refused  to  recognise  his  Syrian 
conquests.  After  several  successes  over  the  Ottoman 
troops,  the  European  Powers  intervened  on  behalf  of  the 
Porte.  Peace  was  made  on  the  terms  that  Mehemet  should 
evacuate  Asia  Minor  beyond  the  Taurus,  and  be  formally 
invested  with  the  title  of  Pacha  of  Syria,  for  which  he 


THE   ACROPOLIS    OF    CAIRO.  173 

would  pay  tribute.  Mehemet  All's  position  was,  no  doubt, 
considerably  strengthened  by  his  new  territories  being 
nominally  under  the  sway  of  Turkey.  "  His  principal 
security  consisted  in  his  being  ostensibly  a  dependent  of 
the  Porte;  and  he  was  fully  aware  that  Europe  would 
respect  his  territory  only  so  long  as  it  professedly  belonged 
to  the  Sultan:  that  position  once  abandoned,  any  person 
had  the  same  right,  that '  of  the  strongest  hand,'  to  Egypt, 
that  Mehemet  or  any  other  could  lay  claim  to." 

The  peace  was,  however,  temporary.  The  success  of 
one  who  was  more  his  rival  than  his  vassal  did  not  dispose 
Sultan  Mahmoud  to  look  favourably  upon  Mehemet,  and 
soon  a  pretext  for  attacking  him  afresh  was  found,  and  war 
broke  out  again.  Ibrahim  Pacha  (Mehemet's  eldest  son), 
however,  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  on  the  Sultan's  army 
at  Nezib,  and  the  fleet  (which  had  just  been  refitted)  sur- 
rendered. Even  Constantinople  itself  was  menaced  by  the 
victorious  troops,  and  the  Sultan  was  compelled  to  fall 
back  upon  the  good  offices  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Euro- 
pean Powers,  who  compelled  Mehemet  to  restore  Syria  to 
the  Porte.  Virtually,  then,  as  early  as  1841,  the  Ottoman 
Empire  was  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  Great 
Powers,  and  the  one  great  formula  of  European  politics  — 
the  "  integrity  of  the  Turkish  Empire  "  —  which  has  ever 
since  been  a  cardinal  postulate  in  the  Eastern  question, 
was  first  enunciated. 

The  Powers  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  inducing  Me- 
hemet, who  was  encouraged  in  his  refusal  by  France,  to 
sign  the  convention.  Finally,  by  the  diplomatic  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  Admiral  (then  Commodore) 
Napier,  backed  by  the  strong  personal  influence  of  the 
envoy,  the  Viceroy  consented  to  sign  it.  Napier,  with  the 
convention  in  his  pocket,  went  fifteen  times  to  interview 
Mehemet  before  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  his  signature. 
In  the  London  Foreign  Office  the  story  was  current  at  the 


174  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

time  that  a  casual  reference  to  the  Queen  of  England  as  a 
"  lucky  woman,"  by  Admiral  Napier,  did  more  than  any 
arguments  or  threats  to  induce  Mehemet  to  give  way.  The 
interpreter,  who  was  also  British  vice-consul,  was  a  Moham- 
medan. He  was  sent  for  by  the  Viceroy,  when  a  conversa- 
tion to  this  effect  took  place : 

"  You  were,  Effendi,  in  London,  at  the  Queen's  corona- 
tion.    Were  there  any  bad  omens  ?  " 

"  None ;  only  good  omens." 

"  Did  you  see  her  on  that  occasion  ?  " 

"  I  saw  her  twice." 

"  Were  you  near  her  ? " 

"  No ;  but  I  was  near  her  at  the  Lord  Mayor's  dinner 
that  she  went  to." 

"  How  did  she  strike  you  ?  " 

"  She  was  young,  blooming,  and  innocent  —  very  affable, 
and  looked  so  happy." 

"  But  did  you  think  that  luck  was  written  on  her  fore- 
head?" 

"  I  did  not  think  then  on  the  matter ;  but  now  that  you 
ask  me,  I  do  think  that  it  was.  Allah  takes  into  consider- 
ation the  prayers  of  the  guileless.  The  young  Queen's 
eyes,  I  heard,  ran  over,  when  at  her  coronation  she 
prayed  Him  to  protect  and  guide  her,  and  to  govern  all 
her  doings  for  the  honour  and  happiness  of  England." 

"  And  so  you  conclude  that  she  is  lucky  ? " 

"  Yes." 

Next  morning,  the  same  agent  went  with  the  ultimatum. 
Mehemet  was  quite  willing  to  sign.  "  What  was  the  use," 
he  remarked,  "  of  withstanding  the  lucky  Queen  of  a  great 
nation?" 

Had  not  the  Great  Powers  come  to  the  aid  of  Turkey, 
which,  deprived  of  its  fleet  and  troops,  was  absolutely  at 
Egypt's  mercy,  Mehemet  could  have  dictated  his  own  terms 
before  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  and  might  even  have 


THE   ACROPOLIS    OF    CAIRO.  175 

dispossessed  the  hapless  Sultan  of  his  throne,  and  instead 
of  founding  a  new  dynasty  in  Egypt,  raised  up  a  new  one 
over  the  whole  Ottoman  Empire,  to  replace  that  of  the 
House  of  Othman. 

The  dreams  of  foreign  conquest,  and  of  bringing  Syria 
and  the  Levant  under  the  rule  of  Egypt,  were  effectually 
dispelled  by  the  determined  attitude  of  the  Great  Powers ; 
and  for  the  rest  of  his  reign,  till  his  death  in  1849,  Me- 
hemet  had  to  confine  his  energies  to  developing  the  natural 
resources  of  Egypt,  fostering  native  industries,  encourag- 
ing trade,  establishing  schools,  building  canals  and  other 
public  works.  He  also  did  his  best  to  introduce  Western 
manners  and  customs,  and  to  create  a  Civil  Service  based 
on  European  methods.  Though  Mehemet  did  so  much  for 
the  material  progress  of  his  country,  he  did  not  succeed  — 
even  if  he  could  be  said  to  have  seriously  attempted  such 
a  task  —  in  infusing  a  sentiment  of  nationality,  or  in  cre- 
ating anything  approaching  to  an  expression  of  public 
opinion  among  the  Egyptians ;  nor,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
have  his  successors  succeeded  in  inspiring  a  spirit  of  patri- 
otism in  their  subjects.  But,  after  all,  to  alter  the  national 
characteristics  of  a  people  is  the  work  of  centuries.  How 
can  one  expect  to  inspire  a  feeling  of  loyalty  in  a  race 
which,  from  the  time  of  Cleopatra,  has  never  had  a  ruler 
of  Egyptian  birth,  or  to  arouse  a  sentiment  of  nationality 
among  those  who  have  never  had  a  national  cause,  and 
whose  lives  for  thousands  of  years  have  been  passed  in 
one  long  effort  to  satisfy  the  tax-collectors  ?  This  is  what 
makes  the  plausible  party  cry,  "  Egypt  for  the  Egyptians," 
little  more  than  a  mere  sentiment  almost  impossible  of 
realisation. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  life  of  the  greatest  ruler 
Egypt  has  had  since  the  Ptolemies.  We  will  now  proceed 
to  explore  the  fortress  which  is  so  intimately  associated 
with  his  name. 


176  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

This  fortress  is  the  most  striking  landmark  of  Cairo,  and 
is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  historic  build- 
ings of  the  Egyptian  capital.  The  name  of  its  real  founder, 
Saladin,  is  apt  to  be  overshadowed  in  the  minds  of  visitors 
by  that  of  Mehemet  Ali,  who  only  partially  restored  it. 
This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  the  name  of  "  The 
Napoleon  of  Egypt"  is  closely  associated  with  the  chief 
historical  events  connected  with  the  later  history  of  the 
Citadel.  The  nomenclature,  too,  of  the  chief  objects  of 
interest  partly  accounts  for  this  prominence  given  to  the 
traditions  of  this  great  ruler.  For  instance,  the  famous 
Alabaster  Mosque,  one  of  the  most  striking  in  Cairo,  and 
the  great  modern  highway  leading  straight  as  the  crow 
flies  from  the  Ezbekiya  to  the  Citadel,  are  both  called 
after  the  great  national  hero;  while  the  founder  of  the 
fortress  is  only  commemorated  by  Joseph's  Well,  —  Yusuf, 
the  Arabic  form  of  Joseph,  being  Saladin's  other  name,  — 
and  even  this  famous  shaft  is  popularly  ascribed  by  tourists 
to  the  Patriarch  Joseph.  The  Acropolis  of  Cairo  is,'  like 
the  Kremlin  and  the  Alhambra,  a  walled  town  within  a 
city;  and,  besides,  several  mosques,  hospitals,  barracks,  a 
palace,  an  arsenal,  mint,  and  other  Government  buildings 
are,  or  were  once,  comprised  within  its  precincts. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Cairo  guides  and  dragomans,  the 
most  interesting  site  within  the  walls  is  the  one  where 
Emin  Bey  made  his  historic,  or  rather  legendary,  leap  over 
the  battlements,  to  escape  the  slaughter  of  the  Mameluke 
beys  by  Mehemet  Ali,  in  1811. 

"  The  beys  came,  mounted  on  their  finest  horses,  in  magnificent 
uniforms,  forming  the  most  superb  cavahy  in  the  world.  After  a 
very  flattering  reception  from  the  Pacha,  they  were  requested  to 
parade  in  the  court  of  the  Citadel.  They  entered  the  fortification 
unsuspectingly :  the  portcullis  fell  behind  the  last  of  the  proud  pro- 
cession ;  a  moment's  glance  revealed  to  them  their  doom.  They 
dashed  forwards  —  in  vain  I      Before,  behind,  around  them  nothing 


THE    ACROPOLIS    OF    CAIRO.  177 

was  visible  but  blank,  pitiless  walls  and  barred  windows ;  the  only 
opening  was  towards  the  bright  blue  sky ;  even  that  was  soon  dark- 
ened by  their  funeral  pile  of  smoke,  as  volley  after  volley  flashed 
from  a  thousand  muskets  behind  the  ramparts  upon  this  defenceless 
and  devoted  band.  Startling  and  fearfully  sudden  as  was  theii'  death, 
they  met  it  as  became  their  fearless  character,  —  some  with  arms 
crossed  upon  their  mailed  bosoms,  and  turbaned  heads  devoutly 
bowed  in  prayer ;  some  with  flashing  swords  and  fierce  curses,  alike 
unavailing  against  their  dastard  and  ruthless  foe.  All  that  chival- 
rous and  splendid  throng,  save  one,  sank  rapidly  beneath  the  deadly 
fire  into  a  red  and  writhing  mass;  that  one  was  Emin  Bey.  He 
spurred  his  charger  over  a  heap  of  his  slaughtered  comrades,  and 
sprang  upon  the  battlements.  It  was  a  dizzy  height,  but  the  next 
moment  he  was  in  the  air  —  another,  and  he  was  disengaging  him- 
self from  his  crushed  and  dying  horse  amid  a  shower  of  bullets.  He 
escaped,  and  found  safety  in  the  sanctuary  of  a  mosque,  and  ulti- 
mately in  the  deserts  of  the  Thebaid." 

Thus  Warburton  graphically  describes  the  Bey's  remark- 
able escape  from  this  treacherous  massacre.  It  is  a  pity  to 
spoil  such  a  thrilling  and  dramatic  story,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  this  remarkable  feat  of  horsemanship  is  purely 
legendary.  Emin  Bey,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  never  attended 
this  grim  levde  of  his  Sultan.  He  had  been  warned  at  the 
last  moment,  and  fled  into  Syria. 

The  Mosque  of  Mehemet  Ali  was  built,  it  is  said,  in  a 
spirit  of  cynicism,  on  the  very  threshold  of  this  scene  of 
carnage,  by  the  grim  old  Sultan.  It  is  true  that  some 
chroniclers  attribute  a  more  charitable  motive  to  the  choice 
of  a  site,  and  suggest  that  it  was  built  by  Mehemet  as  an 
expiation  of  this  ruthless  massacre.  The  following  inci- 
dent, however,  does  not  give  colour  to  this  suggestion : 
More  than  thirty  years  after  this  terrible  crime,  a  privi- 
leged Englishman,  admitted  to  view  the  bedchamber  of 
the  aged  Viceroy,  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  only 
picture  in  the  room  was  a  portrait  of  the  Mameluke  who 
had  escaped  his  vengeance.  "  The  sole  memento  of  that 
ancient  crime,"  aptly  observes  Mr.  H.  D.  Traill,  "which 


178  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Mehemet  Ali  cared  to  cherish,  was  one  which  would  serve 
to  remind  him,  for  precaution's  sake,  of  the  features  of  his 
one  surviving  enemy." 

This  beautiful  mosque  is  well  worth  a  visit,  though  it 
takes  a  very  low  rank  among  the  Cairene  mosques  in  the 
estimation  of  archaeologists.  It  is  quite  modern,  the  greater 
portion  dating  from  1857,  when  Said  Pacha  added  a  great 
portion  to  the  original  mosque  of  Mehemet,  and  it  is  said 
to  be  a  poor  copy  of  the  Mosque  of  Nasr  Osmaniya  at  Con- 
stantinople. The  proportions  are,  however,  imposing,  and 
the  interior  is  very  richly  decorated.  The  lofty  and  grace- 
ful minarets  are  justly  admired.  It  is  one  of  the  show 
mosques  of  Cairo,  despite  its  artistic  demerits,  and  owes,  no 
doubt,  its  popularity  to  its  size,  its  noble  situation,  —  from 
every  point  of  Cairo  this  striking  landmark  dominates  the 
city,  —  and  as  the  burial-place  of  Mehemet  Ali. 

The  Mosque  of  Mohammed  Nasr,  son  of  the  Sultan 
Qalaun,  is  generally  known  as  the  Old  Mosque,  in  contra- 
distinction to  that  of  Mehemet  Ali.  It  was  formerly  con- 
sidered the  royal  mosque  of  Cairo,  —  a  position  now  held 
by  Sultan  Hassan  Mosque,  —  but  for  many  years  it  served 
as  a  military  prison.  Thanks  to  the  exertions  of  the  Ancient 
Monuments  Preservation  Committee,  it  has  been  restored, 
and  can  now  be  seen  by  visitors.  The  arcaded  quibla  is 
beautifully  ornamented  with  rich  arabesques.  Of  the  other 
mosques  in  the  Citadel,  the  only  one  worthy  of  inspection 
is  the  Mosque  of  Sulieman  Pacha,^  who  is  better  known  as 
Sultan  Selim,  the  Ottoman  conqueror  of  Egypt  (1517).  It 
is  an  exact  replica  in  miniature  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constan- 
tinople, and  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  the  Turkish  type 
of  mosque  in  Cairo. 

Joseph's  Well  is  a  huge  square  shaft  of  vast  proportions 


1  For  some  reasons  the  title  of  Sulieman  Pacha  was  that  chosen  by  the  French 
renegade  officer,  Colonel  Sfeve,  to  whom  the  late  Khedive  Ismail  intrusted  the 
organisation  of  his  army. 


THE    ACROPOLIS    OF    CAIRO.  179 

and  great  depth,  cut  through  the  solid  rock.  It  need  hardly 
be  observed  that,  though  of  respectable  antiquity,  it  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Hebrew  patriarch.  It  is  named 
after  Saladin,  who  either  excavated  it,  or  opened  up  an 
existing  well  hewn  in  the  rock  by  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
This  latter  theory  is  now  generally  accepted  by  Egyptolo- 
gists, and  certainly  the  vast  proportions  of  this  well  are  in 
favour  of  its  having  been  built  in  an  age  which  produced 
the  most  stupendous  architectural  monuments  in  existence. 
The  depth  to  the  level  of  the  water  is  nearly  three  hundred 
feet.  It  is  quite  worth  exploration.  The  descent  is  by 
means  of  a  kind  of  spiral  roadway,  formed  of  a  gently 
inclined  plane,  so  broad  that  a  carriage  might  almost  be 
driven  down  to  the  first  platform.  It  is  said  that  the 
bottom  of  the  well  is  on  the  same  level  as  the  Nile.  The 
water  is  now  only  used  by  the  natives,  as,  since  1866, 
the  Citadel  has  been  supplied  with  water  by  the  Cairo 
Water  Company. 

The  view  of  Cairo,  especially  at  sunset,  from  the  south- 
em  ramparts  is  very  fine,  and  is  justly  included  among  the 
world's  most  famous  points  of  view.  In  natural  beauty  and 
varied  interests,  the  prospect  deserves  to  rank  with  the 
view  from  Europa  Point  at  Gibraltar,  or  from  the  Alham- 
bra  over  the  golden  plain  of  the  Vega,  or  with  the  noble 
panorama  of  sea  and  land  from  the  Hermitage  at  Capri,  or 
from  the  Greek  Theatre  at  Taormina,  to  name  a  few  of  the 
fairest  prospects  in  the  whole  range  of  European  scenery. 
Yet,  grand  though  the  view  is  from  the  Citadel,  that  from 
the  summit  of  the  Mokattam,  which  towers  over  Saladin's 
stronghold,  is  still  more  magnificent,  being  far  more  com- 
manding and  comprehensive.  Here,  not  only  Cairo,  but 
the  Egyptian  Delta,  lies  below  the  spectator. 

Very  graphically  and  suggestively  does  Mr.  Moberly 
Bell  describe  the  innumerable  historical  associations  this 
unique  view  summons  up : 


180  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

"  The  forty,  or  let  us  say  seventy,  centuries  look  across  to  us  from 
the  Pyramids  ;  the  Sphinx,  from  even  a  remoter  period,  stands  still 
waiting  the  answer  to  its  never-solved  riddle ;  and  down  from  long  ages, 
with  huge  lacunce,  indeed,  we  trace  the  history  of  the  world,  marked 
by  the  ruined  foot-prints  of  Time.  There  is  Memphis,  earliest  of 
cities ;  there  are  the  colossal  tombs  of  the  ancient  empire,  stretching 
from  Sakkarah  to  Ghizeh.  To  the  right  lies  Heliopolis,  with  its 
Sun-temple  of  the  Middle  Monarchy ;  and  the  Mle  hurrying  by  to 
Tanis  of  the  Hyksos,  to  Sais  and  Bubastis  of  the  New  Empire,  to 
Naukratis  of  the  Greeks,  and  to  Alexandria  of  the  Ptolemies.  There 
is  Babylon  of  the  Romans,  away  to  the  left, — the  Fostat  of  the 
Arabs  ;  El  Azhar  of  the  Abbasides  ;  El  Katayeh  of  the  Tooloonides  ; 
and  Cairo  itself  of  the  Fatimites.  At  our  feet  lies  the  Citadel  of 
the  Great  Salah-ed-Deen, —  Saladin  of  our  childhood, —  the  founder  of 
the  Ayyoubites.  The  minarets  of  Kalaun  and  Hassan,  Kait  Bey  and 
El  Ghuri,  recall  the  Mameluke  dynasties ;  and  there,  by  the  Mosque 
El  Mowayud,  is  the  Bab  El  Zuweilah,  where  the  Turkish  Sultan 
Selim  hanged  Toman,  last  of  his  race,  assumed  the  title  of  Khaliph, 
and  secured  Egypt  to  the  hated  rule  of  the  Turk." 

This  wealth  of  historical  tradition,  which  serves  to  make 
the  prospect  a  kind  of  mnemonic  object-lesson  in  Egyptian 
history,  is  apt  to  distract  one's  attention  from  the  aesthetic 
featm'es  of  this  glorious  view : 

While  far  as  sight  can  reach,  beneath  as  clear 
And  blue  a  heaven  as  ever  blest  this  sphere. 
Gardens  and  minarets  and  glittering  domes. 
And  high-built  temples  fit  to  be  the  homes 
Of  mighty  gods,  and  pyramids  whose  hour 
Outlasts  all  time,  above  the  waters  tower. 

Moore. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OLD   CAIRO    AND   THE   COPTIC  CHURCHES. 

THE  principal  facts  in  the  early  history  of  Old  Cjiiro 
are  familiar  to  every  tourist ;  and  there  is  scarcely  a 
guide-book,  or  book  of  Egyptian  travel,  which  omits  to  men- 
tion that  Old  Cairo,  now  fenced  off  from  the  modern  capi- 
tal by  an  extensive  barrier  of  huge  mounds  of  rubbish,  was 
formerly  called  Fos^i,  in  allusion  to  the  tent  (fost^t)  of 
the  victorious  Amru,  who  pitched  his  headquarters  here 
when  he  invaded  Egypt  in  638  a.  d.  The  Mohammedans, 
however,  had  only  followed  the  example  of  the  Romans, 
who,  a  few  hundred  years  before,  had  utilised  this  com- 
manding position  as  a  military  post.  This  garrison  town, 
in  turn,  occupied  the  site  of  a  city  founded  by  Babylonian 
colonists,  under  Cambyses,  in  525  b.  c.  Perhaps,  as  in  the 
case  with  most  of  the  buried  cities  of  Egypt,  Old  Cairo  can 
trace  its  history  back  to  a  PharaQflic^  period ;  but  this  is  not 
thoroughly  established,  and  in  the  Persian  period  we  may 
consider  we  have  got  to  the  bed-rock  as  regards  Old  Cairo's 
history.  Diodorus  is  responsible  for  the  statement  that  it 
was  founded  by  Assyrian  captives  in  the  time  of  Rameses 
II.  Modern  scientific  historians  are  not  often  disposed  to 
treat  seriously  this  historian's  statements  as  regards  the 
early  history  of  Egypt,  as  myth,  legend,  and  unsupported 
tradition  are  inextricably  commingled  with  historical  facts. 
This  assertion,  however,  is  of  indirect  value  as  an  argument 
in  favour  of  the  extreme  antiquity  of  Old  Cairo,  as  it  clearly 
shows  that  in  his  time  it  was  generally  believed  that  Baby- 
lon of  Egypt  was  of  very  ancient  foundation.     Some  writers, 

181 


182  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

indeed,  have  attempted  to  identify  this  city  with  Karkar, 
under  which  title  there  is  a  reference  to  it,  according  to 
these  authorities,  in  a  stela  of  Thotmes  IV.  (1700  b.  c.) 
The  site  was  of  great  strategic  and  political  importance,  as  it 
commanded  both  the  Nile  and  the  Delta,  and  it  was  also 
on  the  direct  route  between  the  two  most  important  cities 
of  Lower  Egypt,  —  Memphis  and  Heliopalis. 

Some  historians,  tempted  by  the  etymological  coinci- 
dence, have  brought  forward  an  ingenious  argument  in 
favour  of  a  close  connection  between  this  Egyptian  Baby- 
lon and  Heliopolis,  and  suggest  that  Babylon  is  a  corruption 
of  Bab-li-On ;  that  is.  Gate  of  On  (Heliopolis). 

These  prefatory  remarks  will  perhaps  help  the  non-his- 
torical visitor  to  understand  that  Old  Cairo  is  not,  as  might 
be  supposed  from  the  name,  a  mere  suburb  or  native  quar- 
ter of  Cairo,  but  a  distinct  city,  separated  from  Modern 
Cairo  by  half-ruined  streets  and  mounds  of  rubbish.  It  is 
fully  two  miles  beyond  the  walls,  and  though  the  chief 
sights  are  more  interesting  to  those  fond  of  historical  and 
antiquarian  studies,  two  or  three  days  should  be  devoted 
to  its  exploration.  In  fact,  if  the  visitor  wishes  some- 
thing more  than  a  cursory  inspection  of  the  ancient  Coptic 
churches,  a  whole  week  should  be  devoted  to  these  Greek 
and  Coptic  churches  and  monasteries  which  cluster  round 
the  ruins  of  the  Roman  Babylon,  the  Mosque  of  Amru, 
and  the  ruins  of  Old  Babylon.  The  usual  way  of  visiting 
Old  Cairo  is  on  donkey-back,  but  a  quicker  and  less  tiring 
method  is  to  take  the  train  to  Madagh  Station,  which  is 
within  a  few  minutes'  walk  of  the  old  Roman  Fortress. 

The  interest  of  the  Amru  Mosque  is  rather  historical 
than  architectural.  In  a  certain  sense  it  may  be  called  the 
oldest  mosque  in  Egypt ;  but  there  are  few  traces  of  the 
original  mosque.  In  fact,  as  we  see  it,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
recent  in  Cairo,  dating  from  the  fourteenth  century.  In 
the  rebuilding,  however,  the  original  form  —  a  copy   of 


OLD    CAIRO   AND   THE    COPTIC    CHURCHES.       183 

the  Kaaba  of  Mecca  —  was  preserved,  and  some  of  the  old 
materials  were  incorporated  in  the  walls.  This  mosque  is 
still  held  in  the  greatest  veneration  by  the  Mohammedans 
of  Cairo,  who  call  it  the  "  Crown  of  Mosques.^'  Just  as 
the  Mosque  of  Sultan  Hassan  ranks  as  the  great  Mosque 
of  the  State  or  Royal  Mosque,  this  ancient  foundation  of 
Amru  is  regarded  by  Cairenes  as  peculiarly  the  mother- 
church  of  Cairo ;  and  a  prophecy,  implicitly  believed  by 
devout  Moslems,  predicts  the  downfall  of  Moslem  power 
whenever  this  mosque  shall  fall  to  decay.  It  is  here  that 
the  universal  service  of  supplication,  when  a  tardy  or  insuf- 
ficient rising  of  the  Nile  threatens  the  prosperity  of  Egypt, 
takes  place,  —  a  service  attended  by  the  Khedive,  the 
principal  officers  of  state,  and  the  ulemas,  and  officials  of 
all  the  Cairo  mosques. 

The  gloomy  interior,  with  its  forest  of  pillars  (many 
being  spoils  from  the  temples  of  Memphis  and  Heliopolis) 
resembles  the  El-Azhar  Mosque.  The  late  Khedive  con- 
templated the  complete  restoration  of  this  mosque,  but  little 
has  been  done. 

A  curious  architectural  feature  is  the  pointed  arch,  which, 
according  to  some  authorities,  is  the  earliest  prototype  of 
the  Norman  arch  known.  Fergusson,  however,  is  of  opin- 
ion that  these  pointed  arches  are  of  later  date  than  the 
round  ones  adjoining  them. 

The  much  disputed  question  of  the  origin  of  the  pointed 
arch  mainly  concerns  architectural  experts,  and  most  vis- 
itors will  consider  the  "Pillar  of  the  Whip,"  concerning 
which  various  legends  are  told  by  the  guides,  as  the  most 
interesting  object.  As  a  preliminary  to  the  story,  the  guide 
will  point  out  certain  veins  in  the  marble  which  are  said 
to  be  the  marks  of  the  Caliph's  kourbash  whip.  The  legend 
runs  that  when  Amru  built  the  mosque,  he  wished  to  place 
some  kind  of  relic  from  the  Mecca  mosque  within  the  new 
sanctuary,  and  therefore  requested  his  master,  the  Caliph 


184  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Omar,  to  send  him  one  of  the  columns  from  the  Kaaba. 
The  Caliph  complied,  and  bade  a  certain  column  transport 
itself  to  Egypt.  The  request  being  unheeded,  the  enraged 
Caliph  struck  the  offending  column  with  his  kourbash, 
whereupon  the  column  obeyed.  This  story  being  received 
with  a  sufficient  show  of  credulity,  the  guide  will  probably 
proceed  to  point  out  some  curious  formations  in  the  vein- 
ing  of  the  marble,  which  he  declares  are  the  names  of 
Mohammed  and  the  Sultan  Sulieman.  As  few  visitors 
can  read  Arabic,  this  assertion  is  not  likely  to  be  disputed. 

Next  to  the  miraculous  column,  the  chief  objects  of  inter- 
est in  the  estimation  of  the  guides  are  a  pair  of  columns 
between  which  a  man  can  barely  squeeze.  Th6se  are 
known  as  the  "Needle's  Eye,"  and  the  tradition  is  that 
this  feat  can  only  be  performed  by  men  of  the  highest 
integrity,  the  Arabs  apparently  attributing  peculiar  virtue 
to  tenuity  of  build.  These  columns  have,  however,  been 
recently  walled  up  by  the  Khedive  Ismail.  In  fact, — 
according  to  the  story  told  by  English  residents,  —  the 
space  was  walled  up  by  Ismail's  orders,  because  he  saw  at 
a  glance  that  his  portly  form  could  not  stand  the  test! 
Consequently,  he  did  not  think  it  fitting  that  the  salvation 
promised  to  his  subjects  should  be  denied  to  their  sov- 
ereign. 

Clustered  within  and  around  the  ruined  walls  of  the  old 
Roman  Castle  are  many  Coptic  churches  and  convents. 
With  the  exception  of  Abou  Sergeh,  generally  called  St. 
Mary's  Church,  they  are  little  known  to  visitors,  or,  for 
the  matter  of  that,  to  the  European  residents ;  yet  their 
high  architectural  importance  and  the  beautiful  workman- 
ship of  the  internal  decoration  invite  careful  inspection. 
The  comparative  neglect  of  these  early  Christian  churches 
on  the  part  of  travellers  is  probably  partly  due  to  the 
ignorance  of  the  dragomans  and  guides,  whose  knowledge 
of  the  ecclesiastical  buildings  of  Old  Cairo  is,  as  a  rule. 


OLD    CAIKO    AND    THE    COPTIC    CHURCHES.       185 

confined  to  the  Mosque  of  Amru,  the  Church  of  St.  Mary, 
and  the  Greek  convent.  It  is,  therefore,  the  best  plan  to 
dispense  with  the  ordinary  Cairo  guide  and  engage  one  on 
the  spot.  There  are  nearly  a  dozen  Coptic  churches  in 
Old  Cairo ;  but  except  to  those  who  take  a  special  interest 
in  ecclesiastical  architecture  and  art,  a  visit  to  those  men- 
tioned above,  and  the  churches  of  Abou  Sephin  and  El- 
Adra,  both  situated  within  the  walls  of  the  old  Roman 
citadel,  will  probably  suffice. 

The  one  modern  authority  on  the  Coptic  churches  is  Mr. 
A.  J.  Butler,  whose  monograph,  "The  Ancient  Coptic 
Churches  of  Egypt,''  ranks  as  a  classic,  and  should  cer- 
tainly be  consulted  by  every  person  who  wishes  to  obtain 
full  and  accurate  information  about  these  unique  sanctu- 
aries. 

The  exterior  of  a  Coptic  church  is  characterised  by  a 
marked  simplicity  and  absence  of  decoration,  and  with  the 
windows  looking  like  loop-holes,  it  has  more  resemblance 
to  a  fort,  and  the  Byzantine  basilica  influence  is  clearly 
traceable.  The  internal  arrangements  approximate  more 
nearly  to  those  of  a  Greek  church  than  to- a  Roman  Catholic 
or  Protestant  temple.  The  body  of  the  church  is  divided 
into  three  compartments  separated  by  wooden  screens.  The 
first  is  a  kind  of  vestibule ;  the  second  compartment  is  set 
apart  for  women ;  and  the  third,  next  the  choir,  is  reserved 
for  men.  East  of  the  chancel  or  choir  is  the  hekel,  or 
sanctuary,  and  behind  this  again  the  apse,  with  the  epis- 
copal throne.  The  ritual  in  some  respects  resembles  that 
of  the  Greek  church.  There  is  no  organ,  the  only  instru- 
ments being  cymbals,  and  brass  bells  struck  with  a  rod 
held  in  the  hand.  "  The  voices  of  the  clergy,  as  they 
'  praise  God  with  the  loud  cymbals '  have  a  singularly  wild 
and  impressive  effect.  There  are  no  images,  but  a  great 
number  of  paintings  in  the  stiff  Byzantine  style,  but  some 
of  them  are  not  wanting  in  a  kind  of  rude  grandeur.     The 


186  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

principal  painting  is  always  that  of  our  Lord  in  the  act  of 
benediction." 

The  Copts  are  supposed  to  be  the  direct  descendants  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  and  there  is  a  less  admixture  with  alien 
conquering  races  than  is  the  case  with  other  inhabitants  of 
the  Nile  Valley.  The  early  Egyptian,  or  Coptic,  church 
dates  probably  a  couple  of  centuries  before  the  famous 
edict  of  Theodosius,  a.  d.  379,  —  that  religious  coup  d'Stat 
which  officially  established  Christianity  as  the  state  religion 
of  Egypt.     The  earliest  Christians  were  probably  monks. 

"  To  Egypt,"  observes  Mr.  Lane-Poole,  "  belongs  the  de- 
batable honour  of  having  invented  monasticism."  Though 
the  early  Egyptian  church  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
the  Coptic  church,  the  historical  origin  of  the  church 
dates  from  451  a.  d.,  when,  adopting  the  heresies  of  Euty- 
chus,  it  seceded  from  the  mother-church  of  Rome ;  and 
from  that  time  its  believers  rank  as  a  distinct  sect.  Their 
ritual,  however,  resembles  in  many  respects  that  of  the 
Greek  church. 

Their  churches  and  convents  are  scattered  throughout 
all  Egypt,  from  the  Mediterranean  shore  to  the  Theban 
plain.  The  most  important  settlement  is,  however,  in 
Cairo,  where  there  are  two  large  Coptic  colonies,  —  one  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  uninteresting,  miscalled  Coptic 
cathedral,  north  of  the  Ezbekiya,  which  is  seldom  visited 
by  tourists ;  and  the  other,  scattered  among  the  ruins  of  the 
old  Roman  Castle  of  Babylon. 

"  When  we  enter  the  stronghold,  the  strange  character  of  the  for- 
tress grows  upon  us.  Passing  through  narrow  lanes,  narrower  and 
darker  and  dustier  even  than  the  back  alleys  of  Cairo,  we  are  struck 
by  the  deadly  stillness  of  the  place.  The  grated  windows  are  small 
and  few,  and  but  for  an  occasional  heavy  door  half-open,  and  here 
and  there  the  sound  of  a  voice  in  the  recesses  of  the  houses,  we  might 
question  whether  the  fortress  was  inhabited  at  all.  Nothing,  cer- 
tainly, indicates  that  these  plain  walls  contain  six  sumptuous  churches, 
with  their  dependent  chapels,  each  of  which  is  full  of  carvings, 


OLD    CAIRO    AND    THE    COPTIC    CHURCHES.       187 

pictures,  vestments,  and  furniture,  which  in  their  way  cannot  be 
matched.  A  Coptic  church  is  like  a  Mohammedan  harem :  it  must 
not  be  visible  from  the  outside.  High  walls  hide  everything  from 
view.  The  Copts  are  shy  of  visitors,  and  the  plain  exteriors  are  a 
sufficient  proof  of  their  desire  to  escape  that  notice  which  in  bygone 
days  aroused  Mohammedan  cupidity  and  fanaticism,  and  now  too 
often  excites  the  no  less  dangerous  envy  of  the  moneyed  traveller. 

"  Of  the  six  churches  within  the  fortress  of  Babylon,  three  are  of 
the  highest  interest;  for  though  the  Greek  Church  of  St.  George, 
perched  on  the  top  of  the  round  Roman  tower,  is  finely  decorated 
with  Damascus  and  Rhodean  tiles  and  silver  lamps,  the  tOWer  itself, 
with  its  central  well  and  great  staircase,  and  curious  radiating  cham- 
bers, is  more  interesting  than  the  church  above  it.  Of  the  three 
principal  Coptic  churches,  that  of  St.  Sergius,  or  Abu  Sarga,  is  the 
most  often  visited,  on  account  of  the  tradition  that  it  was  in  its 
crypt  that  the  Holy  Family  rested  when  they  journeyed  to  the  land 
of  Egypt."  1 

As  if  to  give  some  colour  to  this  tradition,  the  Copts 
exhibit  a  manger  in  which  the  Infant  Christ  was  said  to 
have  been  laid.  Apart  from  this  exceedingly  doubtful  tes- 
timony of  the  supposed  manger,  it  is  possible  that  this 
crjrpt  does  mark  the  alleged  site.  It  is  certainly  many 
centuries  older  than  the  church.  The  screen  here  is 
particularly  fine ;  and  among  other  valuable  specimens  of 
wood-carving  is  a  beautifully  executed  representation  of 
the  Nativity  in  high-relief. 

The  most  striking,  however,  of  all  the  Babylonian 
churches  is  that  known  as  the  Mn'allaka,  or  Hanging 
Church.  It  is  so  called  because  it  is  built  in  between  two 
bastions  of  the  Roman  wall,  so  that  it  has  the  appearance 
of  being  suspended  in  mid- air.  Apart  from  this  factitious 
attraction,  which  naturally  makes  it  the  most  popular  with 
guides  and  tourists  of  all  the  churches  contained  in  the 
castle  precincts,  the  church  is  noteworthy  in  many  respects. 
It  is  the  oldest  of  the  Coptic  churches  in  Old  Cairo,  part  of 
it  dating  probably  from  the  third  century.     Then  there  are 

1  S.  Lane-Poole. 


188  THE    CITY    OF    THE   CALIPHS. 

no  domes  and  no  choir.  In  fact,  this  church  approaches 
more  nearly  to  the  strict  basilican  pattern  than  any  other 
church  in  this  quarter.  There  is  a  curious  hanging-garden 
attached  to  the  church,  where  the  bold  experiment  of  plant- 
ing palms  in  mid-air  has  succeeded  in  perpetuating  the 
tradition  that  it  was  here  that  the  Virgin  first  broke  her 
fast  with  a  meal  of  dates,  on  her  arrival  in  Egypt.  The 
cleft  to  be  found  in  date-stones  is,  according  to  this  Coptic 
legend,  the  mark  made  by  the  Virgin's  teeth.  This  fact 
should  interest  students  of  sacred  folk-lore. 

A  visit  to  Roda  Island  and  the  famous  Nilometer,  being 
generally  combined  with  the  excursion  to  Old  Cairo,  a 
short  description  of  this  beautiful  island  may  be  conven- 
iently included  in  this  chapter.  The  island  is  a  pretty  and 
shady  retreat  covered  with  groves  and  gardens.  An  Arabic 
tradition  has  chosen  a  certain  part  of  the  shore,  opposite 
the  Hospital  of  Qasr-el-Aini,  as  the  site  of  the  finding  of 
Moses  by  Pharaoh's  daughter.  The  spot  is  marked  by  a 
tall  palm  with  an  unusually  smooth  trunk,  which  is,  of 
course,  called  Moses's  Tree. 

The  Nilometer  (the  column  used  to  mark  the  rise  of  the 
Nile)  is  the  chief  object  of  interest  in  the  island ;  it  is  situ- 
ated at  the  southern  end,  exactly  opposite  the  site  of  the 
old  Roman  fortress  of  Babylon,  and  consists  of  an  octagon 
column  of  red  granite,  about  thirty  feet  high.  This  pillar 
has  been  frequently  repaired,  and  probably  very  little  re- 
mains of  the  original  Nilometer,  built  by  the  Caliph  Sulie- 
man  in  715  a.  d.  It  is  erected  at  the  bo  tom  of  a 
well-like  chamber  or  cistern,  crowned  by  a  modern  domed 
roof,  which  has,  of  course,  direct  communication  with  the 
Nile.  Owing  to  the  elevation  of  the  river-bed,  the  tra- 
ditional height  of  sixteen  cubits  (about  twenty-eight  feet) 
on  the  column,  when  the  cutting  of  the  banks  of  the  irri- 
gation canals  is  permitted,  does  not  actually  mean  a  rise  of 
the  Nile  to  this  extent.     At  Cairo,  a  rise  of  twenty-six  feet 


OLD    CAIRO    AND    THE    COPTIC    CHURCHES.       189 

is  thought  to  be  a  good  average.  This  traditional  number  of 
cubits  is  symbolised  in  the  famous  Vatican  statue  of  Father 
Nile,  who  is  surrounded  by  sixteen  genii,  who  are  intended 
to  represent  those  cubits. 

In  former  times,  the  taxation  of  the  fellah  was  arranged 
on  a  sliding  scale,  dependent  on  the  rise  of  the  Nile.  It 
need  scarcely  be  said,  when  we  remember  the  fiscal 
methods  of  the  Egyptian  Government,  even  as  recently 
as  the  time  of  the  Khedive  Ismail,  that  this  custom  gave 
rise  to  much  dishonesty  on  the  part  of  the  officials  who 
had  the  custody  of  the  Nilometer,  who  invariably  pro- 
claimed the  rise  to  be  greater  than  it  actually  was. 

The  rise  of  the  Nile,  and  the  consequent  ceremony  of 
cutting  the  dam  of  the  Khalig  Canal,  is  celebrated  by  an 
important  festival.  It  is  not  a  poetical  metaphor,  but  an 
actual  fact,  that  the  Nile  is  the  one  beneficent  Providence 
of  Egypt ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  surprising  that,  as  a  period 
of  universal  rejoicing  and  holiday-making,  the  Khalig  fete 
outshines  many  of  the  great  religious  festivals. 

A  graphic  description  of  this  fete  is  given  in  Murray's 
Handbook : 

«  The  ceremony  is  performed  in  the  morning  by  the  Governor  of 
Cairo  or  his  deputy.  The  whole  night  before  this  the  booths  on 
the  shore  and  the  boats  on  the  river  are  crowded  with  people,  who 
enjoy  themselves  by  witnessing  or  joining  the  numerous  festive 
groups.  The  Governor  of  Cairo  and  other  high  officials  have  mar- 
quees pitched  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Khalig,  and  ask  their 
friends  to  witness  the  ceremony.  Towards  morning  the  greater 
part  of  the  Cairenes  either  retire  to  some  house  to  rest,  or  wrap 
themselves  up  in  a  cloak  and  sleep  on  board  the  boats,  or  upon 
the  banks  in  the  open  air.  About  eight  o'clock  a.  m.,  the  Governor, 
accompanied  by  troops  and  his  attendants,  arrives ;  and  on  giving  a 
signal,  several  peasants  cut  the  dam  with  hoes,  and  the  water  rushes 
into  the  bed  of  the  canal.  In  the  middle  of  the  dam  is  a  pillar  of 
earth,  called  Aru-seten-Nil,  <  The  Bride  of  the  Nile,'  which  a  tra- 
dition pretends  to  have  been  substituted  by  the  humanity  of  Amru 
for  the  virgin  previously  sacrificed  every  year  by  the  Christians  to 


190  THE   CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

the  river-god.  While  the  water  is  rushing  into  the  canal,  the  Gov- 
ernor throws  some  silver  to  the  men  who  have  been  employed  in 
cutting  the  dam,  who  swim  about  with  great  skill  in  the  rushing 
water.  It  occasionally  happens  that  some  swimmer,  less  able  to 
withstand  the  strength  of  the  current,  is  carried  away  and  drowned. 
As  soon  as  sufficient  water  has  entered  it,  boats  full  of  people  ascend 
the  canal,  and  the  crowds  gradually  disperse,  as  the  Governor  and 
the  troops  withdraw  from  the  busy  scene." 

The  ceremony  is  rarely  witnessed  by  tourists,  as  it  usu- 
ually  takes  place  in  the  beginning  of  August.  If  the  im- 
provements promised  by  the  Egyptian  Government  are 
carried  out,  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  characteristic 
of  Cairene  festivals  will  probably  be  abolished  altogether, 
or  degenerate  into  a  meaningless  ceremony,  as  by  the 
drainage  of  the  Khalig  its  raison  d^etre  will  be  abolished. 
As  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  intention  is  to 
convert  this  ancient  waterway  —  in  the  early  sununer  vir- 
tually an  open  sewer  —  into  an  electric  tramway. 

Just  beyond  the  Khalig  is  the  ruined  aqueduct,  which  is 
a  very  picturesque  feature ;  and  though  the  guide-books  are 
inclined  to  ignore  it,  it  is  quite  worth  a  visit.  The  local 
guides  ascribe  it  to  Saladin,  but  it  was  actually  built  by 
the  Sultan  Ghuri.  It  was  intended  to  supply  the  Citadel 
with  water  from  the  Nile,  and  though  now  in  a  ruinous 
condition,  traces  of  the  grand  workmanship  of  the  Mame- 
luke builders  can  still  be  recognised.  The  length  is  about 
two  and  a  quarter  miles,  and  the  water  was  conducted  by 
seven  stages,  being  raised  from  one  level  to  the  other  by 
means  of  sakyehs.  The  southern  end  terminates  in  a  mas- 
sive square  tower  over  two  hundred  feet  high.  The  sum- 
mit can  be  conveniently  reached  by  a  gently  inclined 
pathway,  similar  to  the  one  at  Joseph's  Well  in  the  Cita- 
del. The  view  from  the  top  is  very  striking.  Those  who 
intend  visiting  the  Coptic  churches  will  find  it  a  convenient 
way  of  making  acquaintance  with  the  puzzling  topography 
of  this  Coptic  quarter. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

SOME   SIDE-SHOWS   OF   CAIRO. 

THERE  are  certain  well-known  sights  in  Cairo,  which 
are  more  popular  in  character  than  most  of  the 
antiquities  and  curiosities  described  in  earlier  chapters. 
Such  are  the  performances  of  the  Howling  Dervishes,  those 
of  the  Twirling  Dervishes,  the  dances  of  the  Ghawazee 
girls  at  the  Arab  caf^s,  the  snake-charmers,  street-conjur- 
ers, etc.  These  side-shows  of  Cairo,  as  they  might  well  be 
called,  constitute  what  Ruskin  or  Grant  Allen  would  prob- 
ably term  "  Vulgar  Cairo."  Though  no  doubt  they  appeal 
more  to  the  taste  of  the  ordinary  sight-seer  than  to  that 
of  the  intelligent  tourist,  yet  such  an  intolerant  attitude 
would  be  deprecated  by  the  student  of  men  and  manners, 
who  is  capable  of  looking  beneath  the  surface,  and  appre- 
ciating the  substratum  of  Oriental  life  and  atmosphere 
which  underlies  these  somewhat  vulgarised  attractions  of 
the  casual  tourist. 

Cairo  abounds  in  Egyptian  caf^s,  where  dances  by  the  soi- 
disant  members  of  the  Ghawazee  tribe  are  the  sole  attrac- 
tions. They  are,  however,  altogether  lacking  in  local  colour, 
and  are,  in  fact,  run  by  enterprising  Greeks  and  Levantines 
for  European  visitors,  and  the  performance  is  as  banal  and 
vulgar  as  at  any  cafS  chantant  in  Antwerp  or  Amsterdam. 
The  whole  show  consists  of  a  few  wailing  musicians  sitting  on 
a  raised  platform  at  one  end  of  the  caf^,  accompanying  the 
endless  gyrations  of  a  stout  young  woman  of  unprepossess- 
ing features,  who  postures  in  particularly  ungraceful  and 
unedifying  attitudes.     Then  her  place  is  taken  by  another, 

191 


192  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

equally  ill-favoured  and  obese,  who  goes  through  the  same 
interminable  gyrations,  to  be  relieved  in  her  turn ;  and  this 
goes  on  hour  after  hour.  This  strange  "  un variety  show  " 
is,  nevertheless,  one  of  the  established  sights  of  Cairo,  and 
is  frequented  in  great  numbers  by  tourists.  Genuine  per- 
formances of  these  dancing  girls  are  seldom  seen  in  Cairo, 
except  occasionally  at  weddings  among  the  rich  Cairenes ; 
and,  in  fact,  the  public  dances  of  the  Ghawazee  are  forbid- 
den by  the  authorities.  They  can,  however,  be  seen  at 
most  of  the  towns  of  the  Upper  Nile  Yalley,  especially  at 
Keneh  and  Esneh. 

There  is  a  strong  family  likeness  between  all  these  Orien- 
tal dances.  The  Ghawazee  dance  has  many  points  of  simi- 
larity with  the  Spanish  gypsy  dances,  one  of  the  stock 
sights  of  Seville  and  the  Alhambra,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  introduced  into  Spain  by  the  Phoenicians.  These 
exhibitions  of  muscular  contortion  are  practically  the  same 
as  the  repulsive  danse  du  ventre^  familiar  to  all  Algerian 
tourists.  The  Indian  nautch-dance,  equally  sensuous  but 
more  graceful,  is  also  closely  related  to  these  terpsichorean 
performances.  In  short,  all  these  sensuous  and  muscular, 
as  distinct  from  locomotive,  dances  have  doubtless  a  com- 
mon origin. 

These  repulsive  and  stupid  exhibitions  would  not  prob- 
ably be  so  much  patronised  by  foreigners,  were  it  not  for 
the  singular  dearth  of  ordinary  urban  amusements  and 
public  recreations  in  Cairo.  Probably  no  tourist-centre  of 
equal  importance  affords  so  few  opportunities  to  visitors  of 
amusing  themselves  rationally  in  the  evening,  when  ordinary 
sight-seeing  is  impracticable.  An  opera  two  or  three  times 
a  week  during  the  season,  and  one  or  two  caf^  concerts, 
sum  up  the  resources  of  the  city  in  the  shape  of  evening 
entertainments. 

This  lack  of  evening  recreation  is  the  more  noticeable 
from  the  fact  that  Cairo  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  one  of 


SOME    SIDE-SHOWS    OF    CAIRO.  193 

the  gayest  and  liveliest  winter  resorts  in  the  world.  In  the 
limited  society  sense  this  reputation  is  well  deserved, 
though  the  passing  tourist  will  not  probably  be  enabled  to 
test  its  accuracy.  The  Cairo  season  is  like  that  of  Cannes 
or  Nice, — one  endless  round  of  entertainments  of  all  kinds. 
But  these  social  gaieties  are  for  the  most  part  confined  to 
the  European  winter-residents  and  the  little  world  of  Cairo 
officialdom.  In  the  case  of  guests  at  the  big  hotels,  there 
is,  however,  a  certain  amount  of  social  intercourse  among 
the  residents  and  tourists ;  and  the  balls  which  are  fre- 
quently given  by  the  fashionable  hotels,  such  as  Shep- 
heard's.  Continental,  and  the  Ghezireh  Palace,  serve  a 
useful  purpose  in  bringing  about  this  amalgamation. 

The  al-fresco  exhibitions  of  the  snake-charmers,  conjurers, 
story-tellers,  etc.,  are  a  characteristic  feature  of  Cairo  street- 
scenes  ;  but  the  most  amusing  of  all  these  out-door  enter- 
tainments are  the  performances  of  Kara  Guz,  the  Egyptian 
Punch.  This  Arabic  form  of  the  friend  of  our  childhood 
is  perhaps  the  prototype  of  the  English  Punch-and-Judy 
show.  The  only  essential  difference  between  the  English 
and  Egyptian  versions  seems  to  be  that  the  Egyptian 
Punch  is  polygamous,  and  it  is  one  of  his  numerous  wives, 
and  not  the  baby,  who  is  thrown  out  of  the  window.  A 
Nemesis,  however,  awaits  the  murderer,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  English  Punch,  and  his  soul  is  conveyed  to  Hades  by 
an  Egyptian  devil  of  appalling  ugliness. 

With  strangers,  however,  the  most  popular  of  all  the 
sights  of  Cairo  are  the  performances  of  the  two  sects  of 
dervishes,  known  as  the  Howling  and  the  Twirling  Der- 
vishes. They  take  place  every  Friday  afternoon  in  their 
respective  tekiyehs,  as  the  convents  of  this  fanatical  sect 
are  termed.  These  quasi-religious  services,  technically 
known  as  Zikrs,  though  repulsive  and  brutalising  enough 
to  satisfy  the  most  morbid  tastes,  are,  however,  tame  and 
perfunctory  compared  with  the  performances  which  take 


194  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

place  at  the  great  religious  festivals  at  the  Mosques  of  the 
Hasaneen  and  Mehemet  Ali. 

The  ordinary  weekly  Zikrs  of  the  Twirling  Dervishes 
cannot  always  be  reckoned  upon  by  the  sight-seer,  as  they 
are  often  suspended.  The  Howling  fraternity,  however, 
perform  with  great  regularity  every  Friday  afternoon, 
between  two  and  three,  in  the  Tekiyeh-Kasr-el-Ain ;  and  to 
enable  their  guests  to  witness  the  spectacle  in  comfort,  the 
proprietors  of  the  principal  hotels  advance  the  hour  of  the 
table  d*htte  lunch  on  that  day. 

The  dervishes  stand  in  a  circle,  with  their  eyes  fixed  upon 
their  sheik,  who  remains  in  the  centre  of  the  ring  of  wor- 
shippers, and  directs  the  exercises  and  controls  the  pace 
of  the  movements  with  gestures,  as  a  musical  conductor 
directs  a  band  or  orchestra  with  his  baton. 

The  beginning  is  comparatively  sober  and  restrained,  the 
dervishes  slowly  bending  their  heads  to  and  fro,  and  per- 
petually ejaculating  invocations  to  Allah  with  staccato 
grunts  or  groans.  Soon  the  swaying  becomes  more  violent, 
and  the  body  is  bent  backwards  and  forwards  till  the  fore- 
head and  the  back  of  the  head  almost  touch  the  ground 
alternately.  The  groaning  and  howling  increases  in  force 
and  volume,  and  is  unpleasantly  suggestive  of  the  roar 
of  wild  beasts.  By  this  time  most  of  the  fanatics  have 
flung  aside  their  turbans,  and  their  long  black  manes  sweep 
backwards  and  fo wards  like  a  punkah  curtain,  with  the  reg- 
ularity of  a  pendulum.  Some  of  the  more  excitable  wor- 
shippers are  at  this  point  foaming  at  the  mouth  and  yelling 
hu!  Jiu!  in  an  ecstasy  of  religious  frenzy  only  partially 
simulated.  Occasionally  a  dervish  will  fall  on  the  floor  in 
a  paroxysm  of  ecstatic  emotion  which  has  all  the  appear- 
ance of  an  epileptic  fit.  In  fact,  there  is  a  certain  element 
of  genuine  fanaticism  in  the  performance  when  at  its  height 
that  might  prove  dangerous  to  the  spectators.  Ladies  are  not 
advised  to  remain  to  the  end ;  or  if  the  spectacle  proves  too 


SOME    SIDE  -  SHOWS    OF    CAIRO.  195 

engrossing,  they  should  be  especially  careful  not  to  sit  too 
close  to  the  dervishes,  or  to  brush  up  against  the  performers. 
The  dervishes  maintain  that  the  touch  of  a  woman  is  con- 
tamination, and  the  half-maddened  fanatics  might  possibly 
resent  this  contact  in  a  very  unpleasant  fashion.  Male  vis- 
itors, too,  will  be  well  advised  to  avoid  letting  it  be  seen 
that  they  are  affected  by  the  ludicrous  aspect  of  some 
phases  of  this  performance. 

To  a  spectator  of  an  impressionable  temperament  there 
is  something  horribly  fascinating  in  this  performance.  He 
may  be  told,  and  be  quite  prepared  to  believe  at  the  time, 
that  the  groaning  and  howling  of  these  fanatics  is  as  much 
a  mercenary  show,  in  which  the  Christian  dogs  of  tourists 
and  other  unbelievers,  instead  of  the  Egyptians,  can  be 
conveniently  "  spoilt,''  as  a  religious  exercise.  But  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  frenzy  of  the  dervishes  is  not  wholly  sim- 
ulated, for  towards  the  end  of  the  service  the  howling, 
groaning,  and  swaying  worshippers  seem  in  a  manner  hyp- 
notised by  the  wild  strains  of  the  excruciating  music. 

Besides  being  a  less  obnoxious  spectacle,  regarded  from 
a  secular  point  of  view,  the  Twirling  Dervishes'  perform- 
ance is  a  far  more  remarkable  one,  regarded  as  a 
gymnastic  feat,  than  that  of  their  confreres,  the  Howling 
Dervishes.  After  all,  it  does  not  require  to  be  a  Moham- 
medan counterpart  of  the  Salvationists  to  groan,  gasp, 
and  sway  the  body  by  the  hour  together.  Any  of  the 
European  spectators  could  perform  the  feat,  if  necessary. 
The  Twirling  Dervish  may  be  half  impostor,  half  fanatic  ; 
but  at  all  events,  like  the  sword-swallower  or  slack-wire 
dancer,  he  is  doing  something  which  none  of  the  European 
spectators  could  do.  To  revolve  at  the  rate  of  from  sixty 
to  one  hundred  times  a  minute  for  nearly  half  an  hour  is 
an  accomplishment  to  which  the  feats  of  the  record  wield- 
ers  of  the  Indian  clubs  alone  can  offer  a  parallel.  Then, 
too,  one  must  allow  a  certain  amount  of  religious  fervour 


196  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  exaltation,  which  seems  wanting  to  the  ceremonies  of 
the  "  Howlers.''  The  Twirling  Dervish  has  all  the  air  of  a 
genuine  mystic. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  contemplate  the  countenance  of  the  twirling 
fanatic,  and  the  contrast  of  its  strange  quietude  with  the  ceaseless 
motion  of  his  body,  without  being  powerfully  impressed  by  it.  As 
the  endless  gyrations  continue,  the  position  of  the  arms  is  repeatedly 
varied.  Now  both  are  extended  at  full  length ;  now  one  is  dropped 
by  the  side,  while  the  other  remains  still  stretched  out ;  now  one, 
now  both,  are  bent  till  the  tips  of  the  fingers  touch  the  shoulders. 
But  all  the  time  the  eyes  remain  closed,  and  the  face  wears  the 
same  expression  of  perfect  and  imperturbable  calm.  To  gaze  in- 
tently upon  him  is  to  feel  his  condition  gradually  communicating 
itself  to  your  own  brain.  That  spinning  figure  with  the  unmoved 
countenance  begins  to  exercise  a  disturbing  effect  upon  you. 

"  The  world  of  sight  must  have  long  disappeared  from  his  view ; 
the  whizzing  universe  would  be  a  mere  blur  upon  his  retina  were  he 
to  open  his  eyes.  But  does  he  see  nothing  beyond  it  through  their 
closed  lids?  Has  he  really  twirled  himself  in  imagination  to  the 
Gates  of  Paradise?  Perhaps  the  incessant  rotary  movement  acts 
on  the  human  brain  like  hashish.  This  dervish,  at  any  rate,  has 
all  the  air  of  the  wonder-seer.  He  is  of  the  true  race  of  the  Vision- 
aries ;  and  even  if  he  were  not,  the  stupor  of  trance  is,  at  any  rate, 
a  less  unwholesome  and  distressing  subject  of  contemplation  than 
the  spasms  of  epilepsy.  The  performance  of  the  Twirling  Dervishes 
leaves  no  sense  of  a  degraded  humanity  behind  it ;  but  you  quit  the 
company  of  their  grunting  and  gasping  brothers  with  all  the  feeling 
of  having  assisted  at  a  '  camp-meeting '  of  the  lower  apes."  ^ 

The  best  Zikrs  are  to  be  seen  at  the  chief  mosques  on 
the  night  of  the  Middle  of  Shaban.  This  great  festival 
takes  place  during  the  most  solemn  night  in  the  whole 
Mohammedan  year,  when,  according  to  immemorial  cus- 
tom, the  Khedive  pays  his  devotions  in  the  Mosque  of 
Mehemet  Ali.  The  belief  is,  that,  on  this  night  of  Sidr, 
the  lotus-tree,  which  bears  as  many  leaves  as  there  are 
human  beings,  is  shaken  by  an  angel  in  Paradise,  and  on 
each  leaf  that  falls  is  inscribed  the  name  of  some  person 

1  H.  D.  Traill. 


SOME    SIDE-SHOWS    OF    CAIRO.  197 

who  will  infallibly  die  before  the  end  of  the  year.  Natur- 
ally, a  strong  personal  interest  is  behind  the  prayers  and 
intercessions  made  to  Allah  and  Mohammed  on  this  night, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  all  the  mosques  are  thronged. 

With  the  Egyptians  themselves  the  numerous  religious 
festivals  are  regarded  more  as  excuses  for  holiday-making 
than  as  occasions  for  religious  exercises.  So  the  inclusion 
of  these  f^te-days  among  the  Cairo  side-shows  may  be  par- 
doned. 

The  public  festivals  (Molids)  offer  even  a  better  field 
for  the  study  of  Cairene  native  life  than  continuous  visits 
to  the  bazaars.  The  religious  significance  of  these  feasts 
is,  as  a  rule,  quite  ignored  by  the  pleasure-loving  Cairenes, 
and  they  are  more  like  fairs  on  a  large  scale  than  religious 
festivals. 

Most  of  these  fetes  take  place  out  of  the  European 
season,  but  the  Molid  (birthday  anniversary)  of  the 
Hasaneen,  which  is  celebrated  in  the  winter,  should  not 
be  omitted  from  the  tourist's  programme. 

"  Nothing  more  picturesque  and  fairylike  can  be  imagined  than 
the  scenes  in  the  streets  and  bazaars  of  Cairo  on  the  great  night  of 
the  Hasaneen.  The  curious  thing  was,  that,  in  the  winter  after 
Tel-el-Kebir,  when  I  stood  —  for  riding  was  impossible  —  in  the 
midst  of  the  dense  throng  in  the  Mooski,  and  struggled  into  the 
by-street  that  leads  to  the  Mosque  of  the  Hasaseen,  there  was  not 
a  sign  of  ill-humour  or  fanaticism,  in  spite  of  the  presence  of  many 
Europeans.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  at  least  some  slight 
demonstration  would  have  been  made  against  the  Europeans  who 
wandered  about  the  gaily  illuminated  streets;  but  English  ladies 
walked  through  the  bazaars,  English  officers  and  tourists  mingled 
in  the  throng,  and  even  reached  the  doors  of  the  sacred  mosque 
itself,  without  the  slightest  molestation  or  even  remark. 

"  The  scene,  as  I  turned  into  one  of  the  narrow  lanes  of  the  great 
khan  which  fronts  the  mosque,  was  like  a  picture  in  the  Arabian 
Nights.  The  long  bazaar  was  lighted  by  innumerable  chandeliers 
and  coloured  lamps  and  candles,  and  covered  by  awnings  of  rich 
shawls  and  stuffs.     The  shops  had  quite  changed  their  character, 


198  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  each  was  turned  into  a  tastefully  furnished  reception-room. 
Seated  in  the  richly  hung  recess,  you  can  see  the  throng  pushing 
by, — the  whole  population,  it  seems,  of  Cairo,  in  their  best  array 
and  merriest  temper.  All  at  once  the  sound  of  drums  and  pipes 
is  heard,  and  a  band  of  dervishes,  chanting  benedictions  on  the 
Prophet  and  Hoseyn,  pass  through  the  delighted  crowd.  On  your  left 
is  a  shop  —  nay,  a  throne-room  in  miniature  —  where  a  story-teller 
is  holding  an  audience  spellbound,  as  he  relates,  with  dramatic 
gestures,  some  favourite  tale.  Hard  by,  a  holy  man  is  revolving  his 
head  solemnly  and  unceasingly,  as  he  repeats  the  name  of  God,  or 
some  potent  text  from  the  Koran.  In  another  place,  a  party  of 
dervishes  are  performing  a  Zikr.  The  whole  scene  is  certainly  un- 
real and  fairylike."  ^ 

It  seems,  perhaps,  strange  to  include  what  to  Western 
minds  is  a  purely  private  and  domestic  function  in  this 
chapter ;  but  a  native  wedding  seems  to  be  considered,  at 
all  events  by  lady  travellers,  one  of  the  recognised  sights  of 
Cairo.  Strangers  who  wish  to  be  present  at  one  of  these 
characteristic  entertainments  will  have  little  difficulty  in 
effecting  this.  In  fact  it  is  cynically  said  by  residents  that 
no  self-respecting  dragoman  would  allow  his  patron  to  be 
balked  of  his  desire  by  the  fact  that  no  Cairene  wedding 
was  at  that  time  to  take  place.  He  would  probably,  by 
means  of  baksheesh,  arrange  one  on  purpose ! 

There  is  not,  indeed,  much  difference  in  the  ceremonial 
between  a  wedding  in  Cairo  and  one  in  Constantinople, 
Algiers,  or  other  Mohammedan  cities ;  and  male  visitors,  at 
all  events,  will  probably  consider  the  interminable  cere- 
monies of  the  marriage  festival  tedious  and  puerile. 

The  preliminary  negotiations  are  usually  arranged  by 
professional  intermediaries  or  match-makers,  and  the  bride- 
groom, as  a  rule,  never  sees  his  bride  unveiled  till  the 
actual  day  of  the  wedding.  The  legal  preliminaries  being 
satisfactorily  arranged,  the  formal  festivities  begin  with  the 
procession  of  the  bride  to  the  bridegroom's  house.     In  the 

1  S,  Lane-Poole. 


SOME    SIDE-SHOWS    OF    CAIRO.  199 

case  of  rich  people,  the  bridal  procession  is  conducted  on 
a  very  elaborate  scale.  The  train  is  usually  headed  by 
buffoons,  musicians,  and  jugglers.  Then  comes  the  bride, 
walking  under  a  canopy  borne  by  four  attendants,  and  sur- 
rounded and  followed  by  a  crowd  of  female  relatives  and 
friends.  Sometimes,  however,  the  bride  and  her  train  of 
relatives  are  mounted  on  asses ;  but  among  the  richer 
classes  an  incongruous  note  of  modernity  is  sometimes 
given  to  the  spectacle,  by  the  bride  being  driven  to  the 
house  in  an  ordinary  European  brougham,  which  is  pre- 
ceded by  a  band  of  music,  and  the  picturesque  procession 
of  troops  of  dancers  and  singers  is  altogether  dispensed 
with,  thus  robbing  the  pageant  of  the  most  characteristic 
feature  of  Cairene  wedding  processions. 

Formerly,  in  the  case  of  weddings  among  the  Cairene 
traders,  the  most  striking  part  of  the  procession  was  a 
cavalcade  of  decorated  cars,  each  containing  members  of 
a  particular  trade  or  craft  engaged  in  their  special  callings : 
"  in  one,  for  instance,  a  kaivejy,  with  his  assistants,  and 
pots  and  cups  and  fire,  making  coffee  for  the  spectators; 
in  a  second,  makers  of  sweetmeats ;  in  a  third,  makers  of 
pancakes ;  in  a  fourth,  silk-lace  manufacturers  ;  in  a  fifth, 
a  silk-weaver  with  his  loom  ;  in  a  sixth,  tinners  of  copper 
vessels  at  their  work.  In  short,  almost  every  manufacture 
and  trade  had  its  representatives  in  a  separate  wagon." 
This  vehicular  Arts  and  Crafts  Exhibition  is  copied  now- 
a-days  in  many  Continental  carnival  processions. 

The  bride  and  her  party  having  arrived  at  the  house,  the 
wedding  banquet  takes  place.  The  bridegroom,  however, 
is  not  present,  and  in  fact  does  not  see  his  future  wife 
until  the  end  of  the  day.  The  repast  is  followed  by  what 
would  in  modern  parlance  be  called  a  reception ;  and  the 
long-suffering  bride,  for  all  the  rest  of  the  day,  is  literally 
on  show  to  the  throng  of  invited  guests,  which  usually  num- 
ber many  European  ladies.     It  would,  of  course,  be  con- 


200  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

trary  to  the  etiquette  of  the  Mohammedans  for  the  chief 
personage  to  respond  in  any  way  to  the  felicitations  of 
her  friends,  and  for  the  whole  of  the  day  she  remains 
silent  and  motionless,  on  a  kind  of  throne  at  one  end  of 
the  room. 

Meanwhile,  etiquette  requires  that  the  bridegroom  should 
in  the  mean  time  visit  the  bath  and  the  mosque,  attended 
by  his  friends  and  acquaintances. 

"  Returned  to  his  house,  he  leaves  his  friends  and  attendants  in  a 
lower  apartment,  and  goes  up  to  the  bride,  whom  he  finds  seated 
with  a  shawl  thrown  over  her  head,  so  as  to  conceal  her  face  com- 
pletely, and  attended  by  one  or  two  females.  The  latter  he  induces 
to  retire  by  means  of  a  small  present.  He  then  gives  a  present  of 
money  to  the  bride,  as  '  the  price  of  uncovering  her  face ; '  and  hav- 
ing removed  the  covering  (saying,  as  he  does  so,  'In  the  name  of 
God,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merciful '),  he  beholds  her,  generally 
for  the  first  time.  On  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit,  he  is  recom- 
mended to  perfume  himself,  and  to  sprinkle  some  sugar  almonds 
on  the  head  of  the  bride  and  on  that  of  each  woman  with  her^  Also, 
when  he  approaches  her,  he  should  perform  the  prayer  of  the  rekaSf 
and  she  should  do  the  same,  if  able." 

Among  the  upper  classes  of  the  Cairenes  and  the  official 
Turkish  families  the  spectacular  portion  of  the  bridal  pro- 
cession is  shorn  of  much  of  its  glory,  though  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  in  the  house  are  carried  out  in  the  orthodox 
manner.  The  bride  and  her  friends  are  in  carriages,  and 
are  escorted  to  the  husband's  house  by  troops  of  soldiers 
and  officials  of  all  ranks ;  for  Western  manners  and  customs 
are  outwardly,  at  least,  being  steadily  assimilated  by  the 
upper  classes  in  Egypt  as  in  Turkey.  It  is  only  the  lower 
classes  in  Cairo  who  are  consistently  conservative  in  all 
their  modes  of  life. 

The  notoriously  inferior  and  degraded  position  which 
women  occupy  in  countries  under  the  yoke  of  Islam,  which 
is  the  chief  blot  on  the  Mohammedan  social  system,  is  even 
symbolised  in  some  of  the  apparently  meaningless  forms 


SOME    SIDE-SHOWS    OF    CAIRO.  201 

and  ceremonies  of  an  Egyptian  wedding.  Though  univer- 
sal equality  and  fraternity  are  the  cardinal  principles  of 
the  Moslem  cult,  women  are  altogether  excluded  from  the 
benefits  of  these  liberal  tenets.  The  essential  inferiority 
of  the  gentler  sex  is,  indeed,  a  part  of  the  Mohammedan 
religion.  Innumerable  passages  in  the  Koran  testify  to 
the  view  taken  by  the  founder  of  the  Moslem  faith  of  the 
ineradicable  iniquity  of  womankind.  "  I  stood  at  the  gate 
of  Paradise,"  wrote  the  Prophet,  "  and,  lo  !  most  of  its  in- 
habitants were  the  poor ;  and  I  stood  at  the  gates  of  hell, 
and,  lo  !  most  of  its  inhabitants  were  women." 

In  fact,  no  Mohammedan  takes  a  woman  seriously. 
He  regards  her  as  merely  an  ornamental  appendage  of  his 
household,  and  is  not  quite  satisfied  that  she  has  a  soul, 
though  the  more  tolerant  are  inclined  to  give  her  the  bene- 
fit of  the  doubt.  All  over  the  East,  women  are  the  rich 
man's  toys  and  the  poor  man's  slaves.  "  The  worst  of  this 
deplorable  state  of  things,"  writes  Mr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole, 
"  is  that  there  seems  no  reasonable  prospect  of  improve- 
ment. The  Mohammedan  social  system  is  so  thoroughly 
bound  up  with  the  religion  that  it  appears  an  almost  hope- 
less task  to  separate  the  two.  ...  As  long  as  the  Moham- 
medan religion  exists,  the  social  life  with  which  it  has 
unfortunately  become  identified  will  probably  survive ;  and 
whilst  the  latter  prevails  in  Egypt,  we  cannot  expect  the 
higher  results  of  civilisation." 


CHAPTER   XYI. 

THE   PYRAMIDS   OF   GHIZEH. 

PERHAPS  there  is  no  single  ancient  monument  in 
existence  which  has  been  so  much  written  about  as 
the  Pyramid  of  Cheops,  usually  known  as  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid. The  number  of  volumes  devoted  to  this  mausoleum 
would,  in  fact,  fill  a  respectable  library.  The  wildest 
theories  have  been  ventilated  in  an  attempt  to  solve  the 
meaning  and  account  for  the  object  of  the  Pyramid. 

To  quote  only  a  few.  Some  have  supposed,  with  a  sub- 
lime indifference  to  the  adaptation  of  ways  and  means,  that 
they  were  intended  merely  to  act  as  an  indestructible 
metrical  standard.  Pliny  thought  that  they  were  built 
mainly  to  give  the  people  employment ;  in  fact,  to  serve  the 
same  purpose  as  public  works  subsidised  by  modern  gov- 
ernments in  time  of  famine,  plague,  or  great  national  dis- 
tress. Others  held,  and  this  theory  long  maintained  its 
ground,  that  the  perfect  orientation  of  the  Pyramids  indi- 
cated that  they  were  built  for  astronomical  purposes.  By 
mediaeval  chroniclers,  when  Egyptian  chronology  was  at  a 
discount,  they  were  said  to  have  been  built  by  Joseph 
for  granaries. 

Many  writers,  however,  contented  themselves  with  at- 
tributing a  merely  symbolical  motive  to  the  Pyramids. 
Perhaps  the  most  original  idea  was  that  of  a  French 
savant,  who  held  that  the  Pyramids  were  built  as  a  barrier 
to  protect  the  cities  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  from  sand- 
storms. Now,  happily,  the  fables,  speculations,  and  miscon- 
ceptions to  which  these  structures  have  given,  rise  are,  for 


THE    PYKAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  203 

the  ,  most  part,  exploded.  The  overwhelming  weight  of 
evidence,  the  fruit  of  the  exhaustive  researches  of  trained 
observers  and  scientists,  is  in  favour  of  their  having  simply 
been  used  as  royal  tombs. 

The  stupendous  size  of  these  cairns,  the  incalculable 
amount  of  labour  their  building  entailed,  is  not,  however, 
so  extraordinary  as  the  astonishing  architectural  skill 
shown  in  the  construction.  As  Fergusson  observes  in  his 
"  History  of  Architecture,"  notwithstanding  the  immense 
superincumbent  weight,  no  settlement  in  any  part  can  be 
detected  to  an  appreciable  fraction  of  an  inch.  In  short, 
what  probably  first  strikes  the  spectator  is  its  matter,  and 
then  its  manner  of  construction. 

An  architect  cannot  help  being  amazed  at  the  wonderful 
skill  and  elaboration  of  the  workmanship;  "the  flatness 
and  squareness  of  the  joints  is  extraordinary,  equal  to 
opticians'  work  of  the  present  day,  but  on  a  scale  of  acres 
instead  of  feet  of  material.  The  squareness  and  level  of 
the  base  is  brilliantly  true,  the  average  error  being  less 
than  a  ten  thousandth  of  the  side  in  equality,  in  square- 
ness, and  in  level."  ^ 

The  real  meaning  and  true  inwardness  of  the  Pyramids 
is  admirably  suggested  in  the  following  passage  in  Prof. 
Flinders-Petrie's  "  History  of  Egypt,"  now  in  prepara- 
tion: 

"  The  essential  feeling  of  all  the  earliest  works  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians  is  a  rivalry  with  Nature.  In  other  times  buildings  have 
been  placed  either  before  a  background  of  hills,  so  as  to  provide  a 
natural  setting  for  them,  or  crowning  some  natural  height.  But 
the  Egyptian  consented  to  no  such  tame  cooperation  with  natu- 
ral features.  He  selected  a  range  of  desert-hills  over  a  hundred  feet 
high,  and  then  subdued  it  entirely,  making  of  it  a  mere  pedestal  for 
Pyramids,  which  were  more  than  thrice  as  high  as  the  native  hill  on 
which  they  stood.  There  was  no  shrinking  from  a  comparison  with 
the  work  of  Nature;  but,   on   the   contrary,  an  artificial  hill  was 

1 W.  M.  FUnders-Petrie. 


204  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

formed  which  shrunk  its  natural  basis  by  comparison,  until  it 
seemed  a  mere  platform  for  the  work  of  man.  This  same  grandeur 
of  idea  is  seen  in  the  vast  masses  used  in  construction.  Man  did 
not  then  regard  his  work  as  a  piling  together  of  stones,  but  as  the 
erection  of  masses  that  rivalled  those  of  Nature." 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  recapitulate  here  the  popular 
information  about  the  Pyramids,  which  is  to  be  found  de- 
scribed at  length  in  all  guide-books.  Every  Egyptian  trav- 
eller is  aware  that  these  buildings  are  royal  tombs,  built  by 
the  first  three  sovereigns  of  the  fourth  dynasty, —  Khufu, 
Khafra,  and  Menkaura  (or,  popularly,  Cheops,  Chephren,  and 
Mycerinus)  ;  that  they  are  probably  the  oldest  monuments 
in  tolerable  preservation  in  Egypt,  dating  from  a  period  so 
remote  that  almost  as  many  centuries  separate  them  from 
the  famous  temples  of  Abydos,  Thebes,  and  Abou  Simbel 
as  separate  these  famous  ruins  from  the  great  buildings 
of  the  Ptolemies.  We  all  know  that  the  Pyramids  were 
built  of  limestone  from  the  Turra  quarries  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Nile,  and  cased  with  polished  granite,  which 
was  laid  under  contribution,  after  the  Arab's  conquest,  to 
build  the  walls  and  mosques  of  Cairo. 

At  the  risk  of  boring  my  readers,  I  will  venture  to  quote 
a  few  statistics.  According  to  the  latest  measurements 
(Petrie),  the  height  of  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops  is  451  feet. 
It  may  be  interesting  to  compare  it  with  other  great  build- 
ings, ancient  and  modern.  The  Washington  monument  at 
Washington,  D.  C,  is  555  feet  high,  and  the  Eiffel  Tower  984, 
while  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  is  but  429  feet  high. 
Each  side  is  755  feet  at  the  base,  so  that  a  walk  round  the 
Great  Pyramid  would  be  a  little  over  half  a  mile  in  length. 
Perhaps  this  will  convey  a  better  notion  of  its  size  than 
the  often-quoted  statement  that  the  area  is  thirteen  acres, 
exactly  that  of  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  London,  and  about  four 
times  the  area  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  The  weight 
of  this  truly  royal  sepulchre  is  computed  at  seven  million 


THE    PYRAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  205 

tons.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  St.  Peter's  of  Rome  could  be 
erected  in  this  Pyramid,  supposing  it  were  hollow,  and  the 
curious  computation  of  a  French  savant  that  the  stones 
of  the  three  Pyramids  (Cheops,  Chephren,  and  Mycerinus) 
would  be  sufficient  to  make  a  wall  six  feet  high  and  one 
foot  wide  all  round  France,  brings  home  to  the  spectators 
a  clearer  idea  of  the  size  of  the  Great  Pyramid  than  whole 
pages  of  dry  figures. 

Considerable  doubt  has  been  thrown  by  commentators 
on  Herodotus's  famous  account  of  the  building  of  the 
Pyramids,  especially  in  regard  to  the  passage  in  which  he 
declares  that  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops  was  the  result  of 
the  labours  of  100,000  men,  who  worked  three  months  a 
year,  for  twenty  years,  at  the  task. 

Prof.  Flinders-Petrie,  however,  makes  out  a  convincing 
and  excellently  reasoned  case  in  favour  of  the  accuracy  of 
Herodotus's  statement.  The  actual  work  was  probably 
organised  as  follows :  Each  year,  towards  the  end  of  July, 
when  the  Nile  had  fairly  risen,  the  men  would  assemble. 
The  blocks  of  stone  average  about  two  and  a  half  tons,  and 
each  would  require  not  less  than  eight  men.  Supposing, 
then,  each  gang  brought  over  and  placed  in  position  ten  or 
a  dozen  blocks  during  the  three  months'  corvde,  and  reckon- 
ing that  some  2,300,000  stones  —  the  calculation  of  the 
best  authorities  —  would  be  required  for  the  Great  Pyramid, 
it  will  at  once  be  seen  that  the  total  number  could  easily 
be  brought  over  and  the  Pyramid  built  in  rather  less  time 
than  the  twenty  years  mentioned  by  the  Greek  historian. 
In  fact,  there  seems  no  reason  to  discredit  the  traditional 
account  of  the  methods  employed  in  carrying  out  what 
seems  at  first  sight  an  almost  superhuman  enterprise. 
Then  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  transport  of  these 
colossal  blocks  to  the  site  of  the  Pyramids  would  be  much 
facilitated,  owing  to  the  inundation.  They  could  be  trans- 
ported in  boats  or  barges  right  up  to  the  edge  of  the  plateau. 


206  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  ascent  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  as  usually  undertaken, 
is  not  only  absolutely  free  from  danger,  but  requires  no 
climbing  abilities  at  all ;  in  fact,  a  child  of  six  would  have 
no  difficulty  in  reaching  the  summit.  The  only  objection 
is  that  it  is  rather  trying  to  the  wind  and  temper,  owing  to 
the  heat  of  the  sun.  Two  or  three  Arabs  practically  haul 
the  visitor  up  to  the  top,  and,  unless  the  tourist  is  strong- 
minded  enough  to  take  the  initiative,  only  a  couple  of  halts 
are  as  a  rule  allowed  the  breathless  climber ;  and  at  these 
resting-places  he  will  be  pestered  with  unattached  Arabs 
offering  him  water  and  clamouring  for  baksheesh. 

We  are  supposing,  of  course,  that  the  traveller  is  "  doing  '* 
the  Pyramids  in  the  conventional  way,  with  one  of  a  band 
of  tourists  marshalled  by  the  satellites  of  one  of  the  great 
tourist-agencies,  who  arrive  every  morning  from  Cairo  dur- 
ing the  season.  The  main  object  of  the  conductor  being 
to  get  his  party  back  to  the  hotel  by  lunch-time,  the  exam- 
ination of  the  Sphinx,  the  Temple  of  the  Sphinx,  and  other 
sights  is,  of  course,  perfunctory  in  the  extreme.  The  Arabs 
cannot,  at  any  rate,  reasonably  be  blamed  for  the  hurried 
manner  in  which  the  ascent  is  performed.  Naturally,  their- 
aim  is  to  conduct  as  many  tourists  to  the  top  as  possible  in 
the  day. 

The  summit  reached,  a  magnificent  view  may  be  enjoyed 
during  the  regulation  half-hour's  rest.  The  Delta  of  the 
Nile,  interspersed  with  countless  channels  and  rivulets 
winding  about  like  silver  threads,  seems  to  resemble  the 
silver  filigree  ornaments  of  Greece.  Looking  down  at  Cairo, 
from  which  the  silver  threads  radiate,  one  is  reminded  of 
the  fanciful  Oriental  comparison  of  the  Delta  with  "  a  fan 
fastened  with  a  diamond  stud."  The  spectator's  poetical 
fancies,  however,  are  soon  put  to  flight  by  clamorous 
demands  for  baksheesh. 

While  resting  on  the  summit,  the  Arab  version  of  the 
Cumberland  guides'  race  may  be  witnessed,  as  any  of  the 


THE    PYRAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  207 

Arab  guides  for  a  few  piastres  (at  first  the  Arab  will  mag- 
nanimously offer  to  do  the  feat  for  five  shillings)  is  quite 
willing  to  race  up  and  down  the  Great  and  Second  Pyramids 
in  ten  minutes.  The  feat  of  climbing  the  Second  Pyramid 
(Chephren's)  might  better  not  be  emulated  by  the  ordinary 
tourist,  as  the  smooth  granite  casing  still  remains  for  some 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  from  the  top.  To  a  mountaineer  or 
cragsman,  however,  the  climb  is  mere  child's  play ;  but 
even  an  experienced  climber  would  better  not  attempt  it 
in  ordinary  boots.  Furnished  with  ordinary  tennis-shoes 
there  would  be  little  difficulty.  Mark  Twain,  as  is  well 
known,  thought  little  of  the  feat.  The  above  description 
will  serve  as  an  illustration  of  how  not  to  do  the  Pyramids. 
The  best  plan,  and  one  which  can  be  recommended  even  to 
the  hurried  tourist,  is  to  stay  the  preceding  night  at  the 
Mena  House  hotel,  and  make  the  ascent  early  in  the 
morning,  before  the  daily  incursion  of  the  tourists  from 
Cairo. 

But  in  order  to  realise  the  stupendous  bulk  and  the 
immensity  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  it  is,  perhaps,  better  to 
forego  the  ascent  altogether.  To  persons  of  an  aesthetic  or 
imaginative  temperament,  this  somewhat  banal  and  common- 
place expedition  is  decidedly  disillusionising.  Hauled  like 
a  bale  of  goods  up  this  gigantic  staircase  of  something  like 
two  hundred  steps,  —  to  be  accurate,  206,  for  everything 
pertaining  to  the  structure  of  the  Pyramid  has  been 
exhaustively  examined,  noted,  measured,  and  tabulated, — 
by  grinning  and  chattering  Arabs,  the  visitor  is  scarcely 
in  a  position  to  appreciate  properly  the  grandeur  or  the 
solemnity  of  this  vast  monument.  If,  instead  of  following 
the  hordes  of  tourists  to  the  summit,  we  stand  a  few  hundred 
yards  away  and  quietly  examine  this  wonderful  result  of  a 
civilisation  of  nearly  five  thousand  years  ago,  gradually  an 
overwhelming  sense  of  their  stupendous  bulk  and  immensity 
will  be  experienced. 


208  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

It  is  not  easy  to  reproduce  in  imagination  these  magnifi- 
cent sepulchres  as  they  appeared  in  their  full  glory  some 
five  thousand  years  ago.  In  this  connection  it  is  worth 
quoting  Dean  Stanley's  graphic  description,  in  his  "  Sinai 
and  Palestine,"  although  a  hypercritical  reader  may  perhaps 
feel  disposed  to  pick  holes  in  the  author's  archaeology,  —  for 
instance,  it  is  now  well  known  that  the  ancient  Egyptians 
never  inscribed  the  exteriors  of  the  Pyramids ;  but  the 
Dean,  though  a  man  of  wide  culture,  never  laid  claim  to  a 
profound  knowledge  of  Egyptology  : 

«  The  smooth  casing  of  part  of  the  top  of  the  Second  Pyramid, 
and  the  magnificent  granite  blocks  which  form  the  lower  stairs  of 
the  Third,  serve  to  show  what  they  must  have  been  all  from  top  to 
bottom.  The  First  and  Second,  brilliant  white  or  yellow  limestone, 
smooth  from  top  to  bottom,  instead  of  those  rude,  disjointed  masses 
which  their  stripped  sides  now  present ;  the  Third,  all  glowing  with 
the  red  granite  from  the  First  Cataract.  As  it  is,  they  have  the 
barbarous  look  of  Stonehenge  ;  but  then  they  must  have  shone  with 
the  polish  of  an  age  already  rich  in  civilisation,  —  and  that  the  more 
remarkable,  when  it  is  remembered  that  these  granite  blocks  which 
furnish  the  outside  of  the  Third,  and  the  inside  of  the  First,  must 
have  come  all  the  way  from  the  First  Cataract.  It  also  seems,  from 
Herodotus  and  others,  that  these  smooth  outsides  were  covered  with 
sculptures.  Then  you  must  build  up  or  uncover  the  massive  tombs, 
now  broken  or  covered  with  sand,  so  as  to  restore  the  aspect  of  vast 
streets  of  tombs,  like  those  on  the  Appian  Way,  out  of  which  the 
Great  Pyramid  would  arise,  like  a  cathedral  above  smaller  churches. 
Lastly,  you  must  enclose  the  two  other  Pyramids  with  stone  precincts 
and  gigantic  gateways  ;  and,  above  all,  you  must  restore  the  Sphinx, 
as  he  was  in  the  days  of  his  glory." 

After  the  ascent,  the  exploration  of  the  interior  will 
probably  be  undertaken.  This  trip,  though  far  more  tiring 
than  the  climb  to  the  summit,  is  particularly  interesting, 
and  should  not  be  omitted.  Ladies,  however,  unless  accus- 
tomed to  scrambling,  are  not  recommended  to  visit  the 
interior.  As  in  all  the  Pyramids,  the  entrance  is  on  the 
northern  side.     After  descending  a  gallery  some  sixty  feet, 


THE    PYRAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  209 

the  passage  which  leads  to  the  Great  Gallery  is  reached. 
The  inclined  passage  continues  to  a  subterranean  (or  rather 
sub-pyramidal,  for,  of  course,  all  the  galleries  and  chambers 
in  the  interior  are,  in  a  sense,  subterranean)  chamber,  known 
as  the  Queen's  Chamber,  which  is  rarely  visited  by  ordinary 
tourists.  The  origin  of  the  names  of  the  two  chambers  is 
curious  and  fortuitous.  These  names  were  given  first  by 
the  Arabs,  in  conformity  with  their  custom  of  making  men's 
tombs  flat-topped,  and  those  for  women  with  a  concave  roof. 
As  these  names  happened  to  accord  with  the  facts,  they 
have  been  adopted  by  Egyptologists,  as  well  as  by  the  pub- 
lic. The  Great  Gallery,  still  mounting  upwards,  leads  to 
the  King's  Chamber, —  a  room  some  seventy-four  feet  long, 
seventeen  broad,  and  nineteen  high.  The  roof  is  flat,  and 
formed  of  simple  blocks  of  granite,  resting  on  the  side 
walls,  which  are  built  of  the  same  materials ;  "  and  so 
truly  and  beautifully  are  these  blocks  fitted  together,  that 
the  edge  of  a  penknife  could  not  be  inserted  between  them." 
(Murray's  Guide.) 

Here  is  the  famous  sarcophagus  —  the  raison  d'etre, 
indeed,  of  the  Great  Pyramid  —  in  which  the  remains  of 
King  Cheops,  no  doubt,  once  rested.  The  discovery  of  this 
red-gradite  coffin  did  not,  it  is  needless  to  say,  upset  the 
preconceived  fantastic  theory  of  Piazzi  Smyth.  Though 
obviously  a  sarcophagus,  the  professor  did  not  allow  him- 
self to  be  disconcerted,  but  declared  that  it  was  a  coffer 
intended  as  an  indestructible  measure  of  capacity  to  all 
time! 

Many  traditions  and  mjrths  have  centred  round  the  Pyra- 
mid of  Mycerinus  (Third  Pyramid),  which  is  still  said  to 
be  haunted.  A  Coptic  legend,  which  recalls  the  myth  of 
the  sirens  in  the  Odyssey,  tells  the  story  of  a  beautiful 
woman  enthroned  on  this  pyramid,  who  allures  desert  way- 
farers from  the  South  and  West,  embraces  them  in  her 
arms,  and  deprives  them  of  reason. 


210  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

«  Fair  Khodopfe,  as  story  tells, 
The  bright  unearthly  nymph,  who  dwells 
'Mid  sunless  gold  and  jewels  hid, 
The  lady  of  the  Pyramid." 

Students  of  folk-lore  are  well  aware  that  the  germ  of  most 
of  our  nursery  tales  can  be  traced  back  to  the  legendary 
stories  of  the  remotest  ages  of  antiquity ;  and  a  story  of  this 
same  Rhodope,  told  by  the  "  Father  of  History,"  Herodotus, 
suggests  the  source  of  the. nursery  legend  of  Cinderella. 
While  bathing  in  the  Nile,  an  eagle  flew  off  with  one  of  her 
sandals,  and,  carrying  it  to  Memphis,  dropped  it  at  the  feet 
of  the  King  Mycerinus  (Menkaura).  Struck  by  its  beauty, 
he  sent  out  his  messengers  in  all  directions  to  find  the  owner 
of  this  little  sandal ;  and  when  they  had  found  her,  he  made 
her  his  queen.  Thus,  too,  in  many  of  the  pictorial  sculptures 
in  the  temples  of  Thebes  can  be  traced  prototypes  of  the 
characters  in  the  Arabian  Nights'  Stories. 

Campbell's  Tomb  is  the  best  known  of  the  royal  sepul- 
chres of  this  great  cemetery  of  ancient  Egyptian  sovereigns. 
It  is  so  called,  in  accordance  with  the  popular  and  illogical 
method  of  nomenclature  which  formerly  obtained,  of  nam- 
ing tombs  after  some  modern  notability  instead  of  the  ten- 
ant, —  in  this  case  after  the  British  consul-general  at  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  the  tomb  by  Colonel  Howard  Yyse. 
It  is  comparatively  modern,  being  attributed  by  scholars 
to  the  twenty-sixth  dynasty,  when  that  of  Sais,  with  the 
help  of  Greek  mercenaries,  over-ran  Egypt.  The  tomb 
is  really  a  pit  about  fifty-five  feet  deep ;  at  the  bottom  is  a 
small  chamber,  in  which  were  found  four  sarcophagi,  one 
of  which  was  given  to  the  British  Museum.  It  is  a  usual 
feat  of  the  Arab  guides  to  climb  down  the  almost  perpen- 
dicular sides  of  the  shaft;  but  if  strangers  wish  to  explore 
the  tomb  chamber,  they  will  have  to  be  let  down  by  a  rope, 
—  a  feat  which,  considering  the  little  there  is  to  see  at  the 
bottom,  is  rarely  performed.     There  are  numerous  other 


THE    PYRAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  211 

tombs  in  the  extensive  necropolis  which  surrounds  the 
Pyramids,  but  they  are  not  of  popular  interest.  The  sight- 
seeing of  most  visitors  to  the  Pyramid  field  will,  in  short, 
be  confined  to  the  ascent  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  possibly  a 
visit  to  the  interior,  a  hasty  glimpse  of  the  Sphinx,  Camp- 
bell's Tomb,  and  the  Sphinx  Temple. 

The  Sphinx,  for  thousands  of  years  the  greatest  enigma 
in  Egypt,  has  not  succeeded  in  baffling  the  investigations  of 
modern  antiquarians,  who  have  stripped  it  of  much  of  the 
mystery  which  constituted  its  great  charm.  Its  builder, 
however,  is  still  a  matter  of  conjecture  with  students  of 
Egyptology.  It  is  now  conclusively  proved  that  it  is  noth- 
ing but  a  colossal  image  of  the  Egyptian  deity,  Harmachis, 
the  "  god  of  the  morning,"  and,  therefore,  of  his  human 
representative,  the  king  (unknown)  who  had  it  hewn.  A 
stela  found  by  Mariette,  near  the  Great  Pyramid,  shows  that 
the  Sphinx  was  probably  repaired  by  Cheops  and  Chephren, 
the  builders  of  the  Great  and  Second  Pyramids  respectively. 

The  Sphinx  is  not  an  independent  structure,  like  the 
Pyramids,  but  is  for  the  most  part  hewn  out  of  the  rocky 
cliff,  or  promontory,  which  juts  out  here  from  the  desert 
plateau.  The  body  and  head  are  actually  hewn  out  of  this 
living  rock,  but  sandstone  masonry  has  been  built  up  to 
connect  the  natural  outline.  The  measurements  given  in 
many  of  the  books  of  reference  are  of  little  value,  as  they 
vary  according  to  the  amount  of  sand  which  had  drifted 
round  the  statue ;  but  the  latest  measurements  of  Professor 
Petrie  give  the  length  of  the  body  as  140  feet,  while  the 
head  measures  thirty  feet  from  the  top  of  the  forehead  to 
the  bottom  of  the  chin.  The  height  of  the  Sphinx,  from 
the  forehead  to  the  base  of  the  monument,  is  seventy  feet. 

Some  successful  excavations  at  the  foot  of  the  Sphinx 
have  recently  been  undertaken  by  an  American  Egyptolo- 
gist, Colonel  Ram.  In  1896  he  discovered  the  klaft,  or 
stone  cap,  with  the  sacred  asp  on  the  forehead,  which  was 


212  THE    CITY   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

known  to  have  once  been  the  head-covering  of  the  Sphinx. 
Dean  Stanley,  for  instance,  in  his  "  Sinai  and  Palestine," 
wonders,  apropos  of  the  colossal  head,  "what  the  sight 
must  have  been  when  on  its  head  there  was  the  royal 
helmet  of  Egypt." 

A  thorough  and  systematic  excavation  of  this  colossal 
figure,  and  the  removal  of  the  steadily  encroaching  desert 
sands  which  have  buried  the  greater  portion  of  the  body, 
is  much  to  be  desired.  The  cost,  however,  would  be  enor- 
mous, amounting  at  least  to  that  of  a  whole  year's  excava- 
tion carried  out  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the  National  Museum 
and  the  Egyptian  Exploration  Society.  Such  a  work  should 
be  undertaken  by  private  enterprise.  If  another  public- 
spirited  man  like  Sir  Erasmus  Wilson  would  provide  the 
funds  for  the  work,  it  is  believed  that  discoveries  of  the 
greatest  importance  would  repay  the  work  of  excavating. 
The  late  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards,  indeed,  was  of  opinion  that 
the  greatest  find  in  the  whole  field  of  Egyptian  antiquities 
is  likely  to  be  round  the  base  of  the  Sphinx,  "  which 
probably  marks  the  site  of  a  necropolis,  buried  a  hundred 
feet  in  the  sand,  of  the  kings  of  the  first  and  second 
dynasties ! " 

The  first  view  of  the  Sphinx  is,  undoubtedly,  striking 
and  impressive  in  the  highest  degree,  but  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  conventional  rhapsodies  of  modern  writ- 
ers who  enlarge  on  the  beauty  of  its  features  are  over- 
strained. Before  the  figure  had  been  mutilated  by  Mussulman 
fanatics,  it  is  possible  that  the  mediaeval  critics  were  justi- 
fied in  speaking  of  the  Sphinx  as  a  model  of  human  sym- 
metry, wearing  "  an  expression  of  the  softest  beauty  and 
the  most  winning  peace."  Now,  however,  the  traveller  is 
confronted  by  a  much  disfigured  stone  giant,  with  a  pain- 
fully distorted  mouth,  broken  nostrils,  and  the  grimace  of  a 
hideous  negro. 

But  though    there    is    little    concrete    beauty   in    this 


THE    PYRAMIDS    OF    GHIZEH.  213 

colossal  figure,  there  is  an  undeniable  fascination  about 
the  Sphinx,  due  to  its  impressive  surroundings,  its  mysteri- 
ous traditions,  and  its  solemn  immobility  of  expression. 
To  realise  the  charm  of  this  monument,  we  must  read  the 
classic  and  oft-quoted  description  of  Kinglake,  who,  in  a 
passage  of  incomparable  prose,  has  succeeded  where  so 
many  writers  have  failed : 

"  And  near  the  Pyramids,  more  wondrous  and  more  awful  than 
all  else  in  the  laud  of  Egypt,  there  sits  the  lonely  Sphinx.  Comely 
the  creature  is,  but  the  comeliness  is  not  of  this  world :  the  once 
worshipped  beast  is  a  deformity  and  a  monster  to  this  generation ; 
and  yet  you  can  see  that  those  lips,  so  thick  and  heavy,  were  fash- 
ioned according  to  some  ancient  mould  of  beauty,  —  some  mould  of 
beauty  now  forgotten,  —  forgotten  because  that  Greece  drew  forth 
Cytherea  from  the  flashing  foam  of  the  ^gean,  and  in  her  image 
created  new  forms  of  beauty,  and  made  it  a  law  among  men  that  the 
short  and  proudly  wreathed  lips  should  stand  for  the  sign  and  the 
main  condition  of  loveliness  through  all  generations  to  come.  Yet 
still  there  lives  on  the  race  of  those  who  were  beautiful  in  the  fashion 
of  the  elder  world ;  and  Christian  girls  of  Coptic  blood  will  look  on 
you  with  the  sad,  serious  gaze,  and  kiss  your  charitable  hand  with 
the  big  pouting  lips  of  the  very  Sphinx. 

"  Laugh  and  mock,  if  you  will,  at  the  worship  of  stone  idols ;  but 
mark  ye  this,  ye  breakers  of  images :  that,  in  one  regard,  the  stone 
idol  bears  awful  semblance  of  Deity,  —  unchangef ulness  in  the  midst 
of  change,  —  the  same  seeming  wiU  and  intent  for  ever  and  ever  in- 
exorable !  Upon  ancient  dynasties  of  Ethiopian  and  Egyptian  kings, 
upon  Greek  and  Roman,  upon  Arab  and  Ottoman  conqueror,  upon 
Napoleon,  dreaming  of  an  Eastern  empire,  upon  battle  and  pestilence, 
upon  the  ceaseless  misery  of  the  Egyptian  race,  upon  keen-eyed  trav- 
ellers, —  Herodotus  yesterday  and  Warburton  to-day,  —  upon  all  and 
more  this  unworldly  Sphinx  has  watched,  and  watched  like  a  Provi- 
dence, with  the  same  earnest  eyes,  and  the  same  sad,  tranquil  mien. 
And  we,  —  we  shall  die,  and  Islam  will  wither  away ;  and  the  Eng- 
lishman, straining  forever  to  hold  his  loved  India,  will  plant  a  firm 
foot  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  sit  in  the  seats  of  the  faithful, 
and  still  that  sleepless  rock  will  lie  watching  and  watching  the 
works  of  the  new  busy  race,  with  those  same  sad,  earnest  eyes,  and 
the  same  tranquil  mien  everlasting.  You  dare  not  mock  at  the 
Sphinx  1 " 


214:  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS: 

A  short  distance  south  of  the  Sphinx  is  the  so-called 
Temple  of  the  Sphinx,  a  structure,  probably,  of  the  fourth 
dynasty.  The  sand  drift  of  thousands  of  years  has  so 
covered  it  that  the  non-observant  traveller  would  suppose 
the  Temple  to  be  a  subterranean  building.  The  Temple  is 
a  worthy  pendant  of  the  mighty  mausoleum,  to  which  it 
seems  to  serve  as  a  kind  of  mortuary  chapel,  for  the  dis- 
covery here  of  the  famous  green  basalt  statue  of  Khafra 
(Chephren),  which  we  have  seen  in  the  Ghizeh  Museum, 
is  held  by  most  authorities  to  prove  that  this  sovereign  was 
the  builder  of  this  temple,  as  well  as  the  Second  Pyramid. 
In  short,  it  is  probably  the  mastaba  of  this  sepulchre.  The 
building  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  architecture  of  the  Ancient 
Empire.  It  is  lined  in  some  parts  with  huge  blocks  of 
alabaster. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

THE   CITY   OF   THE   SACRED   BULLS. 

THE  ruins  of  Memphis  and  the  necropolis  of  Sakkarah 
are  most  conveniently  reached  by  steamer  or  train 
from  Cairo  to  Bedrashen,  a  small  village  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  city.  Most  Egyptian 
antiquarians  and  historians  agree  in  assigning  the  date  of 
its  foundation  to  Menes,  the  first  historical,  as  opposed  to 
the  quasi-mythical  god-kings,  king  of  Egypt.  At  all  events, 
this  ancient  capital  is  certainly  of  a  very  remote  antiquity. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  the  kings  of  the 
Ancient  Empire  established  their  capital  here.  Its  situation 
was  of  distinct  political,  commercial,  and  strategic  value. 
From  the  comparatively  feeble  tribes  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  Nile  there  was  no  danger  of  attack,  while  a  city  on 
the  eastern  bank  would  invite  attacks  from  the  inhabitants 
of  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Arabia.  Then,  in  addition  to 
its  natural  advantages  of  a  fertile  and  well-wooded  soil,  the 
city  was  not  far  from  the  seacoast,  and  occupying  a  fairly 
central  position  in  Egypt,  and  having  command  of  the  Nile, 
it  would  control  the  country  from  Philae,  on  the  south,  to 
the  Mediterranean,  on  the  north.  Under  the  fourth  and 
sixth  dynasties,  whose  kings  sprang  from  Memphis,  the 
city  reached  a  height  of  splendour  which  was  probably  never 
excelled ;  but  the  rise  of  Thebes,  in  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
considerably  diminished  the  glories  of  Memphis,  and  though 
it  was  still  an  important  city,  Thebes  was  the  metropolis  of 
all  Egypt.  After  the  New  Empire,  Memphis  declined  in 
importance,  and  from  that  period  its  history  is  very  similar 

215 


216  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

to  that  of  Heliopolis,  —  another  historic  city,  of  which 
scarcely  any  ruins  remain.  Both  cities  were  taken  and 
retaken  in  turn  by  Assyrian,  Ethiopian,  Persian,  and  Greek 
invaders.  It  was  gradually  shorn  of  most  of  its  glories, 
and  the  founding  of  Alexandria  was  the  final  blow,  fulfil- 
ling the  gloomy  prophecy  of  Jeremiah :  "0  daughter  of 
Egypt,  make  ready  that  which  can  serve  thee  in  thy  cap- 
tivity, because  Memphis  shall  become  a  desert ;  she  shall 
be  forsaken,  and  become  uninhabited."  Such,  in  brief,  is 
the  outline  of  the  history  of  this  once  famous  city. 

Those  who  have  visited  Thebes,  with  its  rich  treasure- 
trove  of  magnificent  temples  and  monuments,  are,  per- 
haps, a  little  puzzled  to  account  for  the  total  disappear- 
ance of  a  city  which,  though  some  two  thousand  years 
older  than  the  City  of  the  Thousand  Gates,  possessed 
many  buildings  of  the  age  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
dynasties,  of  later  date  than  many  of  Thebes's  famous 
buildings.  It  is,  however,  necessary  to  remember  the  very 
different  conditions.  In  the  first  place,  Memphis  lay  in  the 
path  of  all  the  invading  nations  who  overthrew  Egypt  in 
turn.  Then  Thebes  had  no  Fostat  or  Cairo  at  its  threshold, 
—  a  city  which  was  literally  built  out  of  the  ruins  of  Mem- 
phis and  Heliopolis.  Then,  too,  the  devastating  character 
of  the  Nile  inundation,  to  which  low-lying  Memphis  was 
peculiarly  subject,  must  not  be  forgotten.  As  Miss  Brodrick, 
in  Murray's  admirable  Handbook,  aptly  observes,  the  waters 
of  the  inundation,  long  ago  unrestrained  by  the  protecting 
dykes,  covered  the  plain  with  a  gradually  increasing  layer 
of  mud  deposit,  beneath  which  every  trace  of  such  ruins  as 
were  left  completely  disappeared. 

The  only  antiquities  which  remain  to  us  of  Memphis 
itself  —  for  the  pyramids,  tombs,  eto*,  are  quite  distinct,  and 
form  part  of  the  Memphian  cemetery  at  Sakkarah  —  are  the 
two  colossal  statues  of  Rameses  II.  This  vainglorious 
monarch  seems  indeed  to  have  been  as  fond  of  erecting 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SACRED    BULLS.  217 

these  portraits  in  stone  of  himself  as  modern  sovereigns 
are  of  being  photographed.  At  Thebes,  Tanis,  Abou  Sim- 
bel,  and  other  sites,  have  been  discovered  other  monolithic 
comiterfeit  presentments  of  this  much-portrayed  ruler. 
These  two  statues,  in  all  probability,  stood  at  the  entrance 
of  the  famous  Temple  of  Ptah,  the  tutelary  god  of  Memphis. 
One  is  recumbent;  the  other  was  raised  in  1887,  by  Major 
Bagnold  and  his  engineers.  The  monarch  is  now  concealed 
under  a  hideous,  roofless  shed.  The  statue  is  about  forty- 
two  feet  high ;  that  is,  not  quite  half  as  tall  as  the  colossal 
broken  portrait-statue  of  the  same  monarch,  recently  discov- 
ered on  the  site  of  Tanis  by  Prof.  Flinders-Petrie.  This  is 
the  largest  colossus  ever  sculptured  by  the  hand  of  man,  and 
when  complete  was  ninety-two  feet  high.  The  Memphian 
colossus  was  presented  to  the  British  Museum  in  1840. 
In  view,  however,  of  the  almost  insuperable  difficulty  of 
conveying  it  across  the  desert  sands  to  the  Nile,  and  the 
enormous  cost,  the  offer  had  to  be  declined.  For  though 
this  statue  is  much  exceeded  in  bulk  and  weight  by  Cleo- 
patra's Needle,  yet,  owing  to  the  position  of  this  obelisk, 
situated  within  a  short  distance  of  the  Alexandrian  coast, 
the  task  of  its  removal  was  comparatively  easy. 

The  Memphian  necropolis  at  Sakkarah  may,  however,  be 
considered  sacred  ground  to  the  Egyptologist  and  historian. 
It  was  here  that  the  earliest  work  of  Egyptian  mural 
sculpture  was  discovered.  This  is  the  famous  funerary 
tablet,  which  may  now  be  seen  at  the  Ashmoleum  Museum 
in  Oxford.  Its  period  is  the  second  dynasty,  which  means 
that  the  stela  was  carved  about  4000  b.  c.  Then,  among 
the  tombs  of  the  New  Empire  (the  conventional  term  given 
by  modern  historians  to  denote  the  golden  age  of  the  eight- 
eenth to  the  twenty-fifth  dynasties),  was  found  the  famous, 
and  still  more  valuable  historically,  stela,  known  as  the 
Tablet  of  Sakkarah.  This,  with  the  Abydos  tablet,  certain 
fragments   of  Manetho's   history,   and  the  Turin  papyrus 


218  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

are  the  chief  authentic  sources  from  which  we  derive  our 
knowledge  of  the  earliest  period  of  Egyptian  history. 

A  very  valuable  collection  of  Greek  papyri  (b.  c.  168) 
was  found  on  this  site  early  in  the  present  century,  which 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  Apart  from  its  antiquarian 
value,  its  intrinsic  and  literary  interest  is  considerable. 
The  papyri  consist  for  the  most  part  of  letters,  reports, 
petitions,  and  other  documents  chronicling  the  efforts  of  a 
certain  Macedonian  monk,  called  Ptolemy,  in  behalf  of  two 
female  employes  in  the  Serapeum,  who  were  being  defrauded 
by  the  officials  of  their  modest  allowance.  In  short,  the 
record  is  a  veritable  human  docmnent,  palpitating  with 
actuality,  to  adopt  the  expressive  slang  of  the  day. 

The  chief  object  of  interest  in  the  Memphian  cemetery 
of  Sakkarah  is  the  Mausoleum  of  the  Divine  Bulls,  usually 
known  as  the  Serapeum,  which  is  the  term  popularly  but 
incorrectly  applied  to  the  series  of  underground  mortuary 
chambers  in  which  were  buried  these  sacred  bulls,  from 
650  B.  c.  to  56  B.  c.  It  is,  no  doubt,  the  most  popular 
feature  of  this  great  necropolis,  and  probably,  to  nine  out 
of  ten  persons  who  have  visited  Sakkarah,  it  is  the  chief 
attraction. 

This  remarkable  mausoleum  was  discovered  as  recently 
as  1850,  by  Mariette.  He  had  noticed,  in  the  course  of 
excavations  in  various  parts  of  Egypt,  sphinxes  upon  which 
were  inscribed  dedications  to  Osiris-Apis  (Greek,  Serapis), 
and  conjectured  that  they  must  have  some  reference  to  the 
long-lost  Temple  of  Serapis,  near  Memphis,  spoken  of  by 
Strabo.  He  was  fortunate  in  his  preliminary  excavations 
on  the  site  of  this  buried  city,  and  soon  lit  upon  the  vaults 
in  which  the  bulls  were  buried.  Over  sixty  vaults  were 
discovered.  Only  one  part  of  this  bovine  necropolis  is  now 
shown  to  visitors.  It  contains  twenty-four  granite  sarcoph- 
agi, and  they  measure  on  an  average  thirteen  feet  long, 
seven  feet  broad,  and  eleven  feet  high. 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SACEED    BULLS.  219 

By  one  enormous  niche,  leaning  against  a  sarcophagus 
rifled  by  Christian  plunderers  in  the  time  of  Theodosius, 
and  desecrated  by  fanatics  of  other  creeds,  stands  a  ladder, 
up  which  we  may  climb,  and  cast  a  glance  at  the  interior 
of  the  tomb,  which  was  destined  to  preserve  to  all  time  the 
coal-black  body  of  the  sacred  bull.  The  lid  of  the  coffin 
has  been  moved  aside  ;  a  heap  of  stones  is  piled  up  on  one 
side  of  it.  The  mummy  of  the  animal  has  disappeared. 
The  treasures  which  gathered  here,  brought  as  pious  offer- 
ings, have  long  been  carried  off  by  unknown  treasure- 
seekers.  The  strange  surroundings  seem  quite  legendary. 
The  giants  who  were  their  creators  seem  beings  from 
another  and  an  unknown  world. 

The  weight  of  these  sarcophagi  was  so  great  that  all  the 
efforts  of  Mariette's  engineers  to  remove  them,  for  trans- 
port to  Ghizeh,  were  absolutely  ineffectual.  This  is 
indirectly  a  striking  testimony  to  the  wonderful  resources 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  to  whom  such  a  task  would 
have  been  child's  play  in  comparison  with  the  undertaking 
of  removing  the  obelisks  from  Assouan  to  Lower  Egypt. 
No  remains  of  the  sacred  animals  were  found  in  any  of 
the  sarcophagi,  all  of  which  had  evidently  been  rifled, 
probably  at  the  time  of  the  Arabian  conquest  of  Egypt. 

The  history  of  the  animal  worship  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians offers  innumerable  subjects  of  interest  to  the  theolo- 
gian, as  well  as  to  the  anthropologist  and  historian. 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  features  of  the  ancient 
Egyptian  faith  was  the  reverence  paid  to  certain  animals. 
In  some  places  the  people  worshipped  the  crocodile;  in 
others,  the  cat;  in  others,  again,  certain  mythical  birds 
and  beasts ;  but  especially  it  was  the  bull  that  was  adored. 
At  Heliopolis  this  animal  was  called  Mnevis.  At  Mem- 
phis it  was  Apis  who  was  reverenced. 

According  to  common  belief,  either  the  lightning  or  a 
moonbeam  fecundated  a  cow,  and  the  divinity  then  appeared 


220  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

upon  earth  in  the  shape  of  a  bull.  Special  distinguishing 
marks  guided  the  search  for  the  sacred  bull  among  the 
local  herds.  It  sometimes  happened  that  for  years  the 
priests  were  unable  to  discover  the  particular  animal  which, 
by  certain  complex  external  marks,  corresponded  to  the 
ideal  Apis.  The  discoverer  of  the  incarnation  of  the  god 
Apis  was  rewarded  with  an  immense  fortune. 

The  elect  animal  was  next  tamed,  as  far  as  possible ;  and 
then  at  the  first  new  moon  it  was  taken  in  a  sacred  boat  of 
gold  to  Memphis,  where  it  was  placed  in  the  sanctuary  of 
Ptah.  A  special  court  was  assigned  for  its  exercise,  and 
when  it  was  in  its  stall  the  faithful  strove  to  peep  in  at  it 
through  the  window. 

Extraordinary  were  the  divine  honours  paid  to  this  quad- 
ruped. The  Pharaohs  spared  no  money  in  making  its 
worship  as  splendid  as  possible.  Alexander  the  Great  and 
the  Roman  Emperor  Titus  found  it  expedient  to  offer  up 
sacrifices  to  Apis,  who  was  believed  to  be  endowed  with 
prophetic  powers,  and  who  foretold  the  future  in  a  peculiar 
manner.  When  the  sacred  bull  licked  the  garments  of  a 
noted  Greek  astronomer,  it  signified  that  the  latter  was  to 
die  soon,  and  this  really  came  to  pass.  A  similar  meaning 
the  priests  saw  in  its  refusal  to  take  food  from  the  hands 
of  Germanicus.  Its  bellowing  foretold  a  foreign  conquest. 
Those  who  consulted  Apis  used  to  guess  into  which  of  his 
stalls  he  would  next  enter.  If  the  guess  was  correct,  then 
the  answer  to  the  question  was  affirmative,  and  vice  versa. 
People  slept  in  his  temple,  hoping  for  prophetic  dreams. 
Sometimes  questions  were  addressed  directly  to  the  bull, 
and  the  inquirers  then  listened  to  the  voices  of  the  children 
playing  without  the  wall  of  the  temple ;  and  a  saying  having 
some  bearing  on  the  matter  was  then  constructed  out  of 
the  disconnected  expressions  which  reached  the  ear.  When 
Apis  was  led  out  among  the  people,  the  accompanying 
youths,  in  a  state  of  extreme  ecstasy,  sang  and  prophesied. 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SACRED   BULLS.  221 

At  home  Apis  dwelt  behind  purple  curtains,  slept  on  a  soft 
bed,  ate  and  drank  out  of  vessels  of  gold  and  silver. 

But  though  the  sacred  bull  was  adored  in  this  extraor- 
dinary fashion,  if  he  lived  too  long  (above  the  age  of 
twenty-eight,  at  which  age  Osiris  died),  then  the  priests, 
attired  in  mourning  garments,  led  the  horned  embodiment 
of  the  god  in  state  to  the  Nile,  and  solemnly  drowned  him 
there.  Those  of  the  sacred  bulls  which  died  a  natural 
death  were  embalmed  and  buried  with  indescribable  pomp, 
no  expense  being  spared  for  this  purpose.  Priests  remark- 
able for  their  moral  influence  were,  on  rare  occasions,  hon- 
oured by  burial  near  the  sacred  bulls. 

Whole  rows  of  tombs,  in  vaults  of  corresponding  size, 
arose  in  this  subterranean  cemetery.  The  faithful  came 
hither  to  worship,  and  inscribed  their  names  on  special 
tablets  of  stone,  which  still  remain  here,  with  the  precise 
date  of  each  visit.  These  votive  tablets  are  of  the  greatest 
historical  value,  as  they  mention  the  length  of  the  reign  of 
the  king  in  which  each  Apis  bull  was  born  and  buried. 

The  story  of  the  slaughter  of  the  sacred  bull  by  Camby- 
ses  is  familiar  to  all  students  of  history.  The  Persian 
conqueror  had,  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  rule  in  Egypt, 
attempted  to  gain  favour  with  the  priests  by  patronising 
the  native  cult,  and  getting  initiated  into  the  mysteries 
and  ceremonies  of  its  worship.  After  the  utter  collapse 
of  the  ill-advised  expedition  to  Ethiopia  (b.  c.  535)  Camby- 
ses's  tolerance  of  the  Egyptian  religion  was  turned  into  the 
most  bitter  hostility.  Hurrying  back  to  Memphis  from 
Nubia,  after  the  loss  of  a  great  portion  of  his  army,  he 
found  that  the  population  were  holding  festival  because  the 
god  Apis  had  just  manifested  himself  in  a  new  steer,  which 
had  been  duly  consecrated  by  the  priests.  In  a  paroxysm 
of  rage,  Cambyses  ordered  the  priests  to  be  beaten  with 
rods,  the  worshippers  of  Apis  to  be  massacred,  and  the 
sacred'  animal  to  be  brought  to  his  presence.      Raising  his 


222  THE    CITY    OP    THE    CALIPHS. 

sword,  the  enraged  king  killed  the  innocent  animal  with 
his  own  hand,  to  the  horror  of  the  whole  native  population. 
The  actual  epitaph  written  on  this  bovine  martyr  was 
found  by  Mariette,  and  is  now  to  be  read  in  the  Mus^e 
Egyptien,  in  the  Louvre. 

A  dramatic  element  is  given  to  the  discovery  of  the 
sepulchral  chambers  of  the  bulls,  in  the  fact  that  when 
Mariette  effected  an  entrance  he  found  on  the  layer  of 
sand  that  covered  the  floor  the  actual  footprints  of  the  work- 
men who,  3700  years  before,  had  laid  the  sacred  mummy 
in  its  tomb,  and  closed  the  door  upon  it,  as  they  believed, 
forever.^ 

Owing  to  most  travellers  visiting  Sakkarah  and  Memphis 
after  Ghizeh,  the  Pyramids  here  usually  come  in  for  only 
very  perfunctory  notice.  Yet  the  one  known  as  the  Step 
Pyramid  —  platform  or  terrace  pyramid  would  perhaps  con- 
vey a  more  accurate  idea  —  is  even  in  point  of  dimensions 
a  noble  monument.  It  is  about  197  feet  high.  Unlike 
most  pyramids,  the  sides  are  of  unequal  length,  —  the 
north  and  south  faces  being  351  feet,  while  the  other 
sides  are  each  394  feet. 

If  Mariette  is  correct  in  attributing  it  to  a  king  of  the 
third  dynasty,  this  pyramid  or  the  Sphinx  must  be  the  old- 
est historic  building  in  the  world.  It  must  have  been  in 
existence  some  five  centuries  before  a  single  stone  was  laid 
of  the  Pyramids  of  Cheops,  and  over  two  thousand  years 
before  Abraham  was  born. 

A  small  pyramid  next  the  Step  Pyramid,  known  as  the 
Pyramid  of  Unas  (fifth  dynasty),  is  worth  visiting.  It  has 
been  opened  up  at  the  expense  of  Messrs.  Thos.  Cook  and 
Sons,  the  well-known  tourist  agents.  This  was  the  sepul- 
chre of  the  monarch  a  portion  of  whose  mummified  remains 
are  to  be  seen  in  the  Ghizeh  Museum.      It  constitutes, 

1  For  some  portions  of  this  description  of  the  Serapeum,  I  am  indebted  to  an 
admirable  account  in  the  volume  which  chronicles  the  Eastern  travels  of  the 
present  Czar  of  Russia  in  1891-92. 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SACRED   BULLS.  223 

indeed,  the  oldest  historical  mummy  in  any  collection  in 
the  world.  The  official  responsible  for  the  descriptive 
labels  attached  to  the  various  objects  in  this  museum  is 
presumably  lacking  in  a  sense  of  the  ridiculous.  The  label 
affixed  to  the  case  containing  the  mummified  debris  of  this 
sovereign  bears  the  following  humiliating,  if  justly  descrip- 
tive, title  :  "  Fragments  of  King  Unas  "  ! 

The  small  pyramids  of  Teta,  Pepi,  and  other  kings  show 
the  marked  degeneration  in  workmanship  compared  with 
the  Ghizeh  pyramids.  For  instance,  the  masonry,  instead 
of  hewn  stone,  is  a  kind  of  rubble  formed  of  stone  flakes 
filled  in  with  loose  chips. 

Besides  the  valuable  discoveries  by  Mariette  in  recent 
excavations  in  this  pyramid  field,  already  alluded  to,  were 
some  tomb-paintings  which  throw  fresh  light  on  the  disputed 
question  of  the  origin  of  chess.  Hitherto,  it  was  assumed 
that  the  ancient  Indians  had  invented  the  game ;  that  it  was 
introduced  from  India  to  Persia  in  the  sixth  century ;  and 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  Crusades,  it  spread  from  East 
to  West.  This  theory  was  substantiated  by  the  fact  that 
an  Indian,  Persian,  and  Arabic  influence  is  traceable  in 
the  character  of  the  figures  at  present  used,  and  in  some 
of  the  words  connected  with  the  game,  such  as  "  shah  " 
(check),  and  "matt"  (mate).  Now,  north  of  the  Pyramid 
of  King  Teta,  two  grave-chambers  have  been  discovered 
which  were  erected  for  two  high  officials  of  that  ruler, 
called  Kaben  and  Mera.  The  grave-chamber  (mastaba)  of 
the  former  consisted  of  five  rooms,  built  up  with  limestone. 
Its  walls  are  covered  with  exceedingly  well-preserved  bas- 
reliefs  and  pictures  representing  various  scenes.  Mera's 
mastaba  is,  however,  the  most  valuable.  At  present  no 
fewer  than  thirty-two  halls  and  corridors  have  been  un- 
covered. Among  the  many  wall-paintings  in  this  and  other 
rooms,  hunting  and  fishing  scenes,  a  group  of  female 
mourners,  the  three  seasons,  Mera   and  his  sons   holding 


224  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

each  other  by  the  hand,  and  Mera  playing  chess  are  to  be 
seen.  King  Teta  belonged  to  the  sixth  dynasty,  and  his 
reign  was  assigned  by  Professor  Lepsius  to  about  the  year 
2700  B.  c.  Professor  Brugsch,  correcting  this  chronology, 
puts  it  back  to  still  greater  antiquity ;  namely,  to  the  year 
3300  B.  c,  —  so  that  chess  would  appear  to  have  been 
known  in  the  once  mysterious  land  of  Mizraim  something 
like  5200  years  ago. 

The  mastaba  of  Ti,  a  priest  of  the  fifth  dynasty,  is  one  of 
the  most  elaborately  decorated  tombs  in  Egypt,  and  deserves 
more  attention  than  the  hurried  visitor,  or  the  ordinary 
sight-seer  who  attempts  to  "  do"  Sakkarah  in  one  day,  is 
able  to  devote  to  it. 

Ti,  it  appears,  held  a  post  analogous  to  that  of  Chief 
Commissioner  of  Works  for  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  and 
he  was  also  Secretary  of  State,  Head  of  the  Priests,  etc. ; 
in  short,  if  the  parallel  be  not  profane,  this  many-sided 
functionary  was  a  kind  of  Egyptian  Pooh-Bah.  He  married 
a  royal  princess,  who  shared  his  tomb.  This,  perhaps, 
accounts  for  its  magnificence.  The  chambers  are  a  series 
of  picture  galleries ;  and  these  tinted  sculptures  give  more 
illustrations  of  every  phase  of  life  in  Egypt,  five  thousand 
years  ago,  than  are  to  be  found  in  any  tomb  or  temple  yet 
discovered.  "  These  paintings,"  writes  Mr.  Joseph  Pollard 
in  his  recently  published  "  Land  of  the  Monuments,"  "  depict, 
in  a  most  vivid  and  natural  manner,  the  habits  and  customs 
of  the  dwellers  on  the  Nile  when  Ti  was  Secretary  of  State, 
etc.  The  work  is  excellent  throughout,  and  all  the  details 
are  most  carefully  executed  and  finished  ;  every  design  was 
sculptured  in  low-relief  and  then  painted.  The  colours  are 
wonderfully  bright  and  good ;  but  when  the  tints  have  faded 
or  peeled  off,  the  carved  design  remains,  and  we  see  the 
whole  of  the  artist's  subject." 

The  Arabic  word  mastaba,  which  means  a  "bench,"  — 
so  called  because  its  length  in  proportion  to  its  height  is 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SACRED    BULLS.  225 

great,  and  reminded  them  of  the  long  low  seat  common  in 
Oriental  dwellings, — is  constantly  occurring  in  descriptions 
of  ancient  Egyptian  tombs.  These  tombs  are  the  chief 
features  in  the  Sakkarah  necropolis,  and  a  brief  description 
of  this  kind  of  sepulchre  may  conveniently  be  added  here. 
The  mastaba  is  a  heavy,  massive  building,  of  rectangular 
shape,  the  four  sides  of  which  are  four  walls  symmetrically 
inclined  towards  their  common  centre.  They  vary  much 
in  size.  The  largest  measures  170  feet  long  by  86  feet 
wide,  and  the  smallest  about  26  feet  by  20  feet.  In  height, 
they  vary  from  13  to  30  feet.  The  ground  on  which  the 
mastabas  at  Sakkarah  are  built  is  composed  of  rock  covered 
with  sand  to  the  depth  of  a  few  feet ;  their  foundations  are 
always  on  the  rock.  Though  they  have  at  first  sight  the 
appearance  of  truncated  pyramids,  they  have  nothing  in 
common  with  these  buildings  except  their  orientation, 
which  is  invariably  towards  the  true  north.  Mastabas  are 
of  two  kinds,  of  stone  or  of  brick,  and  are  usually  entered 
on  the  eastern  side.  A  mastaba  is  a  more  complex  kind  of 
tomb  than  might  be  supposed  from  its  exterior.  Its  interior 
is  divided  into  one  or  more  mortuary  chambers,  a  kind  of 
anteroom  for  friends  and  relatives  of  the  dead,  a  place  of 
retreat  (sirdab),  and  the  pit  which  was  the  actual  tomb. 
The  walls  of  the  interior  are  sometimes  sculptured,  and  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  chamber  is  an  inscribed  stone  tablet, 
or  stela.  At  the  foot  of  this  stela  a  small  table  of  offerings 
is  often  found.  A  little  distance  from  the  chamber,  built 
into  the  thickness  of  the  wall  at  some  distance  from  the 
floor,  was  a  secret  place  of  retreat.  This  niche  was  walled 
up,  and  the  only  means  of  communication  between  it  and 
the  chamber  was  by  means  of  a  narrow  hole  just  large 
enough  to  admit  the  hand.  This  passage  was  supposed  to 
carry  off  the  fumes  of  incense  which  used  to  be  burnt  in 
the  chamber.  The  sepulchral  pit  was  a  square  shaft  sunk 
from  the  floor  of  the  mastaba,  through  the  solid  rock,  to  a 


226  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

depth  varying  from  forty  to  sixty  feet.  There  was  no  com- 
munication from  the  chamber  to  the  bottom  of  the  pit ;  so 
that  the  mummy  and  its  sarcophagus,  when  once  there, 
were  inaccessible.  The  mummy  was  not,  however,  simply 
placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit.  There  was  an  opening 
from  the  bottom,  excavated  through  the  side  of  the  shaft, 
which  led  obliquely  towards  the  southeast.  The  passage, 
as  it  proceeded,  was  made  larger  until  it  became  the  sar- 
cophagus chamber.  This  sarcophagus,  rectangular  in  shape, 
was  usually  of  limestone,  and  rested  in  a  corner  of  the 
chamber.  When  the  mummy  had  been  laid  in  the  sarcoph- 
agus, and  the  other  arrangements  completed,  the  entrance 
to  the  passage  leading  to  the  sarcophagus  chamber  was 
walled  up,  and  the  pit  filled  with  stones,  earth,  and  sand,  so 
that  the  friends  of  the  deceased  might  reasonably  hope  that 
he  would  rest  there  undisturbed  forever.  Alas  I  man  pro- 
poses, and  the  Egyptian  Exploration  Society  disposes  ! 

The  age  of  the  mastabas  discovered  by  Mariette  is,  of 
course,  of  the  greatest  importance  to  historians  and  anti- 
quarians. He  found  three  belonging  to  one  or  other  of  the 
three  first  dynasties,  43  of  the  fourth,  61  of  the  fifth,  and 
23  of  the  sixth  dynasties  ;  while  in  the  case  of  nine  he  was 
unable  to  assign  a  date.^ 

1  For  most  of  this  information  on  mastabas,  I  am  indebted  to  an  admirable 
series  of  articles  contributed  by  Mariette  to  the  "  R^vue  Arch^ologique." 


CHAPTER   XYIII. 

THE   CITY   OF    THE    SUN. 

THE  exact  date  of  the  foundation  of  Heliopolis,  in  spite 
of  the  great  advance  the  science  of  Egyptology  has 
made  within  the  last  few  years,  is  still  conjectural.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  the  City  of  the  Sun  is  almost  as  old 
as  Memphis,  though  its  period  of  greatest  splendour  dates 
from  the  decline  of  the  latter  city.  According  to  the  Turin 
papyrus,  the  worship  of  the  Sacred  Bulls,  both  at  An 
(Heliopolis)  and  at  Memphis,  was  established  by  Ka-Kau, 
of  the  second  dynasty,  in  the  year  4100  b.  c.  It  may  even 
be  older,  for  some  historians  consider  that  the  wording  in 
the  papyrus  implies  rather  a  revival  than  a  primary  inau- 
guration of  the  cult  of  Apis. 

The  work  of  the  sight-seer  at  Heliopolis  is  easy.  There 
is  only  one  curiosity, — the  famous  obelisk,  the  sole  relic 
of  the  ancient  capital  which  once  ranked  only  second  to 
Memphis  in  importance.  This  monument,  being  the  sole 
object  of  attraction  here  for  tourists,  is  naturally  less  per- 
functorily examined  than  are  those  at  most  other  goals  of 
travellers  in  Egypt,  where  there  is  an  embarrassing  wealth 
of  antiquities  of  all  kinds.  It  is  the  oldest  obelisk  in 
Egypt  yet  remaining  erect  and  in  situ.  The  material  is 
the  usual  rose-coloured  granite  of  Assouan,  the  source  of 
nearly  all  the  Eygptian  obelisks.  Owing  to  a  considerable 
part  —  some  ten  or  a  dozen  feet  —  being  buried  in  the  soil, 
and  to  its  somewhat  commonplace  surroundings,  it  lacks 
the  dignity  and  impressiveness  of  the  Theban  obelisks. 
The  annual  inundation  raises  the  soil  of  the  Delta  about 

227 


228  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

six  inches  in  a  century,  so  that  the  amount  of  deposit 
covering  a  monument  is  an  approximate  indication  of  its 
age.  The  monolith  is  covered  with  hieroglyphics,  which, 
as  is  the  case  with  all  well-known  monuments  in  Egypt, 
have  been  carefully  deciphered  by  Egyptologists,  though 
they  are  now  almost  illegible,  owing  to  bees  having  utilised 
the  deeply  incised  hieroglyphics  for  their  cells. 

"  Though  Heliopolis  is  the  least  monumental  of  all  the  sites  of 
Egypt,  without  temple  or  tomb,  nor  any  record  but  the  obelisk,  it  is 
yet  eloquent  of  greater  things  than  the  solemn  Pyramids  of  Mem- 
phis, or  the  storied  temples  of  Thebes.  What  these  tell  is  rather  of 
Egypt's  history  than  the  world's ;  the  idea  that  Heliopolis  suggests 
is  the  true  progress  of  the  whole  human  race.  For  here  was  the 
oldest  link  in  the  chain  of  the  schools  of  learning.  The  conqueror 
has  demolished  the  temple ;  the  city,  with  the  houses  of  the  wise 
men,  has  fallen  into  hopeless  ruin,  downtrodden  by  the  thoughtless 
peasant,  as  he  drives  his  plough  across  the  site.  Yet  the  name  and 
the  fame  of  the  City  of  the  Sun  charms  the  stranger  as  of  old  while, 
standing  beside  the  obelisk,  he  looks  back  through  the  long  and 
stately  avenue  of  the  ages  that  are  past,  and  measures  the  gain  in 
knowledge  that  patient  scholars  have  won."  ^ 

The  erection  of  this  obelisk  probably  synchronises  with 
the  building  of  the  famous  Temple  of  the  Sun,  of  which 
it  was  doubtless  one  of  the  chief  ornaments.  Recent  dis- 
coveries have  enabled  Egyptologists  to  assign  the  date  of 
the  foundation  of  the  temple  to  the  third  year  of  the  reign 
of  Usertsen  I.,  a  king  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  This  fact 
was  established  by  Doctor  Brugsch,  in  1858,  who  dis- 
covered at  Thebes  a  leather  roll  (now  in  the  Berlin 
Museiun)  which  gives  an  account  of  the  founding  of  the 
temple. 

But  one  need  not  be  an  antiquarian  or  student  of  ancient 
history  to  appreciate  the  extraordinary  interest  of  this 
grand  relic  of  an  ancient  civilisation.     The  least  imagina- 

■^  S.  Lane-Poole,  "Cities  of  Egypt." 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SUN.  229 

tive  of  visitors  can  scarcely  help  being  impressed  at  the 
sight  of  a  monument  which  there  is  every  reason  to  sup- 
pose Moses  must  often  have  looked  upon,  when  a  student 
at  this  ancient  seat  of  learning.  Then  this  obelisk  must 
have  been  standing  for  over  seven  hundred  years  when 
Pharaoh  gave  Asenath,  the  daughter  of  Potiphar,  the  high- 
priest  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  to  the  Patriarch  Joseph. 

The  sun  is  the  most  ancient  object  of  Egyptian  worship 
found  upon  the  monuments.  His  birth  each  day,  when  he 
springs  from  the  bosom  of  the  nocturnal  heavens,  is  the 
natural  emblem  of  the  eternal  generation  of  the  divinity. 
The  rays  of  the  sun,  as  they  awaken  all  nature,  seemed  to 
the  ancients  to  give  life  to  animated  beings.  Hence  that 
which  doubtless  was  originally  a  symbol  became  the  founda- 
tion of  the  religion.  It  is  the  Sun  (Ra)  himself  whom  we 
find  habitually  invoked  as  the  Supreme  being. 

According  to  many  scholars  who  have  given  special 
attention  to  that  branch  of  Egyptology  which  concerns  it- 
self with  the  religion  and  mythology  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, notably  Doctor  Brugsch,  the  worship  of  Apis  was  not 
crude  idolatry  like  the  totem-worship  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican Indians,  but  mere  symbolism.  According  to  these 
exponents  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon,  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians were  virtually  monotheists,  who  recognised  in  Ra 
the  supreme  solar  deity,  while  the  minor  deities  were 
mere  personifications  of  his  divine  attributes.  Knum,  for 
instance,  represented  his  creative  properties ;  Thoth,  his 
wisdom ;  Anubis,  his  swiftness ;  while  the  bull.  Apis,  typi- 
fied his  strength.  This  view  is  certainly  the  most  popular 
one,  though  many  authorities  are  not  prepared  to  admit 
that  the  Egyptians,  though  avowedly  the  most  wonderful 
people  of  antiquity,  had,  at  all  events  so  early  as  the  first 
dynasty,  reached  such  a  high  spiritual  standard  as  mono- 
theism implies. 

Perhaps,  however,  we  shall  find  the  true  solution  of  the 


230  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

problem  in  a  modified  monotheism,  as  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards 
suggests  in  the  following  instructive  passage  : 

"  Their  monotheism  was  not  exactly  our  monotheism :  it  was  a 
monotheism  based  upon,  and  evolved  from,  the  polytheism  of  ear- 
lier ages.  Could  we  question  a  high-priest  of  the  nineteenth  or 
twentieth  dynasties  on  the  subject  of  his  faith,  we  should  be  startled 
by  the  breadth  and  grandeur  of  his  views  touching  the  Godhead. 
He  would  tell  us  that  the  god  Ra  was  the  Great  All;  that  by  his 
word  alone  he  called  all  things  into  existence;  that  all  things  are 
therefore  but  reflections  of  himself  and  his  will;  that  he  is  the 
creator  of  day  and  night,  of  the  heavenly  spheres,  of  infinite  space ; 
that  he  is,  in  short,  the  eternal  essence,  invisible,  omnipresent,  and 
omniscient.  If,  after  this,  we  could  put  the  same  questions  to  a 
high-priest  of  Memphis,  we  should  receive  a  very  similar  answer, 
only  we  should  now  be  told  this  great  divinity  was  Ptah ;  and  if 
we  could  make  the  tour  of  Egypt,  questioning  the  priests  of  every 
great  temple  in  turn,  we  should  find  that  each  claimed  these  attri- 
butes of  unity  and  universality  for  his  own  local  god.  All,  never- 
theless, would  admit  the  identity  of  these  various  deities.  They 
would  admit  that  he  whom  they  worshipped  at  Heliopolis  as  Ra 
was  the  same  as  the  god  worshipped  at  Memphis  as  Ptah,  and  at 
Thebes  as  Amen." 


Heliopolis,  during  the  middle  empire,  was  the  chief  seat 
of  learning  in  Egypt ;  and  the  sacred  college,  attached  to 
the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  was  the  forerunner  of  all  European 
universities.  Thales,  Solon,  Pythagoras,  and  even  Plato 
are  among  the  famous  scholars  who  are  said  to  have 
studied  at  this  ancient  university.  Then,  to  go  back  to 
a  remoter  period,  it  was  at  Heliopolis  that  Moses  was 
instructed  "in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians." 

Its  fame  was,  however,  dimmed  by  the  rise  of  Alexan- 
dria, and  the  transfer  of  its  library  to  the  new  metropolis 
of  Egypt,  by  Ptolemy  I.,  proved  its  death-blow. 

Manetho  (who  might  be  called  the  Gibbon  of  Ancient 
Egypt),  whose  records  are  the  chief  source  from  which  all 
modern  historians  and  Egyptologists  derive  their  chronol- 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SUN.  231 

ogy,  was  the  keeper  of  the  archives  of  the  Great  Temple 
in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  His  actual  history 
has  never  been  found,  and  all  we  know  of  this  invaluable 
work  of  reference  is  from  a  few  quotations  in  Josephus  and 
other  chroniclers.  Still,  as  Miss  Edwards  observes,  there 
is  no  reason  why  some  fortunate  explorer  should  not  yet 
find  a  copy  of  the  lost  history  of  Manetho  in  the  tomb  of 
some  long-forgotten  scribe,  just  as  many  transcripts  of 
Homer  have  been  found. 

Heliopolis  may  be  considered  the  mother-city  of  Baalbec, 
as,  according  to  some  historians,  the  Assyrian  "  City  of 
the  Sun  "  was  founded  by  a  colony  of  priests  who  migrated 
from  Heliopolis.  The  magnificent  ruins  of  this  second 
Heliopolis,  whose  outer  walls  were  composed  of  huge 
blocks  hardly  excelled  in  size  by  those  used  for  building 
the  temples  of  Rameses  the  Great,  will  give  some  indication 
of  the  architectural  splendour  of  the  Egyptian  capital,  as 
the  latter  was  not  likely  to  be  exceeded  in  magnificence  by 
the  daughter-city.  According  to  recent  measurements,  the 
largest  of  these  blocks  is  sixty-four  feet  long,  fourteen  feet 
wide,  and  fourteen  feet  thick. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  but  one  which  seems  to  have 
escaped  the  notice  of  the  writers  of  popular  text-books  on 
Egyptian  history,  that  the  famous  Rosetta  stone  was  origi- 
nally one  of  the  inscriptions  which  covered  the  walls  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Sun.  An  account  of  its  discovery  will  be 
found  in  another  chapter. 

The  legendary  phoenix  is  familiar  to  every  one  in  its  pro- 
verbial application,  and  it  was  from  Heliopolis  that  the 
myth  of  this  fabled  bird,  sacred  to  Osiris,  originated.  It 
was  said  to  visit  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  every  five  hundred 
years,  and  set  fire  to  itself,  fanning  the  flames  with  its 
wings,  from  whose  ashes  sprang  a  new  phoenix. 

Many  of  the  early  Fathers  —  Cyril,  Clement,  Tertullian, 
among   others  —  so  firmly  believed   in   the   story  of  the 


232  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

phoenix,  that  they  did  not  hesitate  to  bring  it  forward  seri- 
ously as  a  proof  of  the  resurrection.  Even  in  the  present 
day,  believers  in  the  truth  of  this  fable  are  to  be  found ; 
and,  as  recently  as  1840,  a  certain  fellow  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford,  published  a  long  pamphlet  in  favour  of  the  exist- 
ence of  this  legendary  bird.  The  most  plausible  theory  of 
the  origin  of  the  myth  is  that  it  was  a  symbolic  representa- 
tion of  the  ancient  astronomers  to  denote  the  recurrence  of 
an  astronomical  period  marked  by  the  heliacal  rising  of 
some  prominent  constellation. 

The  village  of  Matarieh  is  usually  included  in  the  excur- 
sion to  Heliopolis.  It  is  little  more  than  a  mile  distant, 
and  those  going  by  road  will  pass  it  on  their  way  to  the 
City  of  the  Sun.  According  to  the  etymology  of  the  vil- 
lage ("place  belonging  to  the  Sun"),  it  must  originally 
have  been  an  outlying  portion  of  Heliopolis,  and  the  famous 
well  was  in  fact  the  "  Fountain  of  the  Sun."  The  excur- 
sion from  Cairo  is  particularly  pleasant,  the  road  being  bor- 
dered with  tamarisks,  palms,  and  sycamores.  The  village 
of  Matarieh  is  charmingly  situated,  and  from  the  number 
of  palaces  in  its  environs  belonging  to  various  members  of 
the  Khedivial  family,  it  might  well  be  termed  a  village  of 
palaces. 

The  chief  interest  to  visitors  lies  in  the  famous  Virgin's 
Tree  and  Virgin's  Well.  Under  this  holy  tree  the  Virgin 
and  Child  are  said  to  have  rested  after  their  flight  into 
Egypt.  The  tree  is  a  magnificent  old  sycamore,  —  not, 
however,  the  kind  of  sycamore  with  which  we  are  familiar, 
which  belongs  to  the  maple  family,  but  a  kind  of  fig.  It 
need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  tree  now  seen  is  not  the  veri- 
table tree  of  the  legend ;  in  fact,  even  the  guides  do  not  dare 
to  assert  this.  The  tree  is  probably  not  more  than  three 
hundred  years  old.  There  is,  however,  little  doubt  but  that 
it  is  planted  on  the  site  of  an  older  tree,  to  which  the  same 
tradition  attaches ;  and,  indeed,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent 


THE    CITY    OF    THE    SUN.  233 

the  present  tree  having  been  produced  from  a  sapling  of  a 
tree  which,  in  its  turn,  sprang  from  the  original  tree. 
Many  curious  Coptic  legends  cluster  round  this  venerable 
tree.  According  to  some  chroniclers,  the  Virgin  Mary  hid 
herself  from  the  soldiers  of  Herod  among  the  branches,  and 
a  spider,  by  spinning  a  web,  effectually  screened  her  hiding- 
place.  These  legends  are  a  curious  illustration  of  the  pro- 
verbial repetition  of  history,  or  rather  historical  tradition, 
and  recall  to  us  the  stories  of  Charles  II.  and  the  Boscobel 
oak,  and  Robert  Bruce  and  the  spider.  The  tree  has  been 
much  hacked  about  by  relic-hunting  travellers;  and  the 
present  proprietor,  a  Copt,  with  a  sarcastic  appreciation  of 
the  instincts  of  vandalism  which  seems  to  prompt  latter-day 
tourists,  has  considerately  planted  another  sycamore  close 
by,  from  which  pieces  can  be  cut  instead  of  from  the  origi- 
nal, a  knife  being  chained  to  the  tree  for  the  purpose ! 

The  late  Khedive  Ismail  made  a  present  of  this  tree  to 
his  guest,  the  ex-Empress  Eugenie,  in  1869.  The  gift  was 
graciously  accepted,  but  the  empress's  good  taste  prevented 
her  taking  any  steps  for  the  removal  of  this  precious  relic. 
Possibly,  too,  she  was  aware  of  Ismail's  practice  of  making 
presents  of  antiquities  —  obelisks  for  instance  —  which  were 
quite  opposed  to  the  wishes  of  the  natives,  or  regarded  the 
offer  as  an  Oriental  form  of  politeness  never  intended  to  be 
taken  seriously,  just  as  a  modern  Spanish  grandee  will  not 
fail  to  tell  a  guest  who  incautiously  admires  any  possession 
of  his  host,  "  Esta  muy  a  la  disposicion  de  listed  "  ("  It  is 
yours").  This  fictitious  kind  of  hospitality  is,  perhaps,  a 
traditionary  habit  bequeathed  to  Spaniards  by  their  Sara- 
cenic conquerors. 

The  Virgin's  Well  is  close  by;  and  round  this  spot,  also, 
have  centred  many  early  Christian  legends.  It  has  earned 
peculiar  sanctity  as  the  well  in  which  the  Holy  Child  was 
bathed.  The  fact  that  the  water  is  fresh,  being  fed  from 
springs,  while  that  of  most  wells  in  the  Delta  is  either  salt 


234  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

or  brackish,  has  naturally  given  colour  to  this  tradition. 
According  to  the  Coptic  legend,  the  water  was  salt  until 
the  Virgin  bathed  her  child  in  it. 

The  balsam  shrub,  the  Balm  of  Gilead  of  the  Bible,  for- 
merly grew  here  in  profusion.  The  Coptic  tradition  is  that 
the  shrubs  sprang  from  the  drops  of  water  which  fell  from 
the  swaddling-clothes  of  the  infant  Jesus,  which  had  been 
washed  in  the  well.  They  were  brought  from  Judaea  to  this 
spot  by  Cleopatra ;  who,  trusting  to  the  influence  of  Mark 
Antony,  removed  them,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Herod, 
as  they  had  been  hitherto  confined  to  Judaea.  Josephus 
tells  us  that  the  land  where  the  balsam-tree  grew  belonged 
to  Cleopatra,  and  that  "  Herod  farmed  of  her  what  she  pos- 
sessed in  Arabia,  and  those  revenues  that  came  to  her  from 
the  regions  about  Jericho,  bearing  the  balsam,  the  most 
precious  of  drugs,  which  grows  there  alone."  The  plants 
were  in  later  times  taken  from  Matarieh  to  Arabia,  and 
grown  near  Mecca,  whence  the  balsam  is  now  brought  to 
Egypt  and  Europe,  under  the  name  of  Balsam  of  Mecca ; 
and  the  gardens  of  Heliopolis  no  longer  produce  this  valu- 
able plant.  A  still  more  profitable  article  of  commerce, 
one  of  the  most  lucrative  in  Egypt,  —  namely,  the  cotton- 
plant,  —  is  due  to  some  experiments  in  the  culture  of  this 
plant  at  Matarieh  in  1820. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

MINOR   EXCURSIONS. 

IT  is  not  altogether  surprising  that  the  list  of  minor 
excursions  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cairo  recommended 
in  the  standard  guide-books,  and  known  to  the  local  drag- 
omans and  guides,  should  be  such  a  meagre  one.  The 
ancient  monuments  of  Ghizeh,  Memphis,  Heliopolis,  etc., 
to  say  nothing  of  the  important  specimens  of  Saracenic 
architecture  with  which  Cairo  abounds,  are  so  numerous 
and  engrossing  that  few  tourists  can  spare  time  for  ordi- 
nary drives  and  expeditions,  and  consequently  Murray  and 
Baedeker  are  content  with  a  brief  notice  of  only  a  few 
excursions  in  the  neighbourhood.  Those,  however,  who 
are  making  Cairo  their  headquarters  for  the  winter  would 
find  many  objects  of  interest  to  occupy  their  time  after 
exhausting  the  regulation  sights,  and,  indeed,  to  know 
Cairo  properly  means  more  than  a  winter's  study.  To 
the  artist  Cairo  offers  an  illimitable  field,  and  one  which 
is,  to  a  great  extent,  a  virgin  one.  Outside  certain  hack- 
neyed points  of  view  in  the  favourite  bazaar  quarter,  and 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  tombs  of  the  Caliphs  and 
Mamelukes,  where  one  is  constantly  meeting  artists  of  all 
kinds  and  degrees  attempting  to  assimilate  local  colour 
and  atmosphere,  the  artistic  side  of  Cairo  seems  a  good 
deal  neglected.  Those  familiar  with  picture  exhibitions 
know  only  too  well  the  mosque  interiors  and  scenes  of 
Cairo  street-life  which,  in  the  opinion  of  most  amateurs, 
sum  up  the  artistic  possibilities  of  the  City  of  the  Caliphs. 
It  is  painful  to  see  the  absence  of  originality  or  freshness 

235 


236  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

of  invention,  or  any  aptitude  for  the  selection  of  a  really 
striking  or  novel  point  of  view  among  these  innumerable 
artists  of  the  "  tea-tray  school,"  who  have  eyes  only  for 
the  conventional  picturesque. 

It  is  curious,  too,  that  Cairo,  with  its  undeniable  wealth 
of  subjects,  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  been  made  a  field 
of  study  by  an  artist  of  renown,  as  is  the  case  with  Flor- 
ence, Venice,  Rome,  Granada,  Athens,  Constantinople,  and 
other  famous  cities  of  Europe.  Yet  what  a  magnificent 
opportunity,  for  instance,  the  port  of  Boulag,  as  little 
known  to  the  artist  as  to  the  ordinary  tourist,  offers  to 
a  "colourist"  like  Clara  Montalba  or  Henrietta  Rae, 
with  its  pictures  of  native  life,  its  variety  of  form  and 
colour ! 

Strangers  probably  do  not  realise  that  Cairo  has  an 
important  trading-port  at  its  threshold,  and  no  dragoman 
would  dream  of  suggesting  that  the  quays  of  Boulag  might 
be  included  in  the  traveller's  daily  round  of  sight-seeing. 

It  is  a  particularly  lively  scene,  this  emporium  of  all  the 
commerce  of  Upper  Egypt  and  Nubia.  An  endless  succes- 
sion of  all  kinds  of  vessels  line  the  shore, — trading  daha- 
biyehs,  canges,  steamers,  rafts,  transports,  yachts,  and,  since 
the  enterprise  of  Messrs.  Tagg  &  Co.,  the  famous  Thames 
boat-builders,  even  steam-launches  and  rowing-boats.  The 
most  curious  of  all  the  crafts  are  the  rafts  composed  of 
jars  from  Keneh,  which  may  be  seen  here  discharging  their 
cargo.  Montbard's  lively  description  gives  a  good  idea  of 
what  the  traveller  may  see,  though,  of  course,  since  the 
closing  of  the  Soudan  to  traders,  the  trading-vessels  with 
cargoes  from  Khartoum  and  from  Southern  Nubia  are  no 
longer  to  be  seen  : 

"  From  the  South  come  the  vessels  from  Assouan  loaded  with 
senna,  gathered  in  the  desert  by  the  warlike  Abadiehs ;  elephants' 
tusks,  rhinoceros'  horns,  and  antelopes'  horns  from  Darfour ;  skins 
of  jaguars,  zebras,  and  giraffes  from  Khartoum.     Dahabiyehs  with 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  237 

elevated  poops  advance ;  they  hail  from  Esneh,  with  ivory,  ostrich 
feathers,  gum,  nitre,  etc.,  transported  across  the  desert  from  Abys- 
sinia ;  coffee  and  incense  from  Arabia  ;  spice,  pearls,  precious  stones, 
cashmeres,  and  silk  from  India,  arriving  by  the  deserts  of  Kosheir. 
Edf u  sends  its  pipes,  its  charming  vases  in  red  and  black  clay,  ele- 
gant in  form,  with  gracefully  modelled  ornaments;  and  there  are 
heavy  barges  from  Fayoum,  the  land  of  roses,  filled  to  the  top  with 
rye,  barley,  cotton,  indigo ;  dahabiyehs  full  of  carpets,  woollen  stuffs, 
flagons  of  rose-water,  mats  made  with  the  reeds  of  Birket-el-Keroun." 

An  additional  picturesque  touch  is  given  by  the  netting 
with  which  the  precious  freights  are  usually  covered,  in- 
stead of  the  commonplace  and  ugly  tarpaulin  which  we 
are  familiar  with  in  Western  ports.  This  netting  is,  how- 
ever, more  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  cargo  together 
than  to  protect  it  from  the  elements. 

We  will  now  describe  the  more  conventional  excursions 
in  the  environs  of  Cairo.  Helouan  and  the  ancient  quar- 
ries of  Turra  make  a  pleasant  morning's  or  afternoon's 
expedition.  The  modern  town  of  Helouan,  on  the  strength 
of  a  few  palm-trees  surrounding  the  modern  bathing-estab- 
lishment, has  been  grandiloquently  termed  an  oasis  in  the 
desert.  It  is  about  two  miles  from  the  dirty  native  village 
of  the  same  name  situated  on  the  Nile.  There  is  not 
much  to  see  here  except  the  bathing  establishment  and 
the  Khedivial  palace. 

Of  all  his  numerous  palaces,  —  and  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt  seems  to  possess  as  many  royal  residences  as  King 
Humbert  of  Italy,  —  Helouan  was  the  favourite  one  of  the 
late  Khedive  Tewfik.  It  was  here  that  this  sovereign  died, 
and,  in  consequence,  it  has  long  remained  empty;  for  a 
foolish  superstition  —  prevalent  in  all  Mohammedan  coun- 
tries—  makes  even  the  present  Khedive,  in  spite  of  his 
European  training,  disinclined  to  live  in  a  palace  where 
one  of  his  relatives  has  died.  This  prejudice,  no  doubt, 
accounts  for  the  palace  of  Ghizeh  being  turned  into  a 
national  museum,  and  Ghezireh  Palace  into  a  fashionable 


238  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

hotel.  Probably  this  is  the  destiny  which  awaits  the  palace 
of  Helouan ;  for  Helouan,  now  that  its  bathing  establish- 
ment has  been  controlled  by  a  German  syndicate,  and  run 
on  the  lines  of  a  Continental  kursal,  is  beginning  to  be 
frequented  a  good  deal  by  Europeans. 

A  great  variety  of  waters  are  to  be  found  here, —  sulphur, 
saline,  and  iron ;  but  the  principal  springs,  and  those  which 
give  Helouan  its  chief  raison  d^etre,  are  the  sulphur  springs, 
which  are  similar  to  those  of  Aix-les-Bains.  The  claims 
made  for  Helouan,  as  the  most  ancient  health-resort  and 
medicinal  baths  in  the  whole  world,  are  probably  justified. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  are  the  sulphur  baths 
near  the  quarries  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Nile,  to  which, 
on  the  authority  of  Manetho,  the  Ptolemaic  historian.  King 
Amen-hetep,  sent  "  the  leprous  and  other  cureless  persons, 
in  order  to  separate  them  from  the  rest  of  the  Egyptians." 

Though  Helouan  contains  little  of  interest,  it  is  a  con- 
venient starting-point  for  a  trip  to  the  ancient  quarries  of 
Turra.  These  quarries  supplied  much  of  the  stone  for 
the  Pyramids.  Fortunately,  the  modern  quarrying  is  of 
the  surface  rock  for  the  most  part,  so  that  visitors  can 
see  the  vast  caverns  excavated  by  the  Pharaohs,  in  order 
to  get  the  fresh  stone,  almost  as  they  were  when  the  Pha- 
raonic  labourers  excavated  them.  Mediaeval  historians, 
misled  by  the  similarity  of  the  ancient  name  Ta-ro-fu, 
did  not  hesitate  to  call  it  Troja,  and  as  a  plausible  pretext 
declared  that  it  was  so  called  because  the  captive  Trojans, 
who  were  said  to  have  followed  King  Menelaus  to  Egypt, 
had  a  settlement  here.  It  is  curious  how  many  myths, 
gravely  set  down  as  authentic  history  by  Diodorus,  Strabo, 
Herodotus,  and  other  great  writers,  are  due  to  errors  in 
etymology.  Some  stelae  found  here,  of  the  sixteenth  dy- 
nasty, conclusively  prove  that  the  Turra  hills  were  used  as 
quarries  by  several  kings  of  that  early  period.  A  local 
guide  might  better  be  taken,  for  the  Cairo  guides  are  not 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  239 

likely  to  know  the  way  among  the  ancient  galleries  and 
cuttings. 

These  quarries  are  probably  the  oldest  in  the  world, 
older  even  than  those  of  Assouan.  Many  are  still  in  use, 
and  it  is  curious  to  think  that  the  streets  of  the  modern 
city  of  Cairo  are  paved  with  flags  of  the  same  magnesium 
limestone  that  the  Egyptian  masons  used  for  building  the 
temples  of  Memphis  over  four  thousand  years  ago. 

The  ancient  method  of  quarrying  is  so  well  described  in 
Murray's  Handbook,  that  it  is  worth  quoting  in  full : 

"  They  first  began  by  cutting  a  trench  or  groove  round  a  square 
space  on  the  smooth  perpendicular  face  of  the  rock ;  and  having 
pierced  a  horizontal  tunnel  a  certain  distance,  by  cutting  away  the 
centre  of  the  square,  they  made  a  succession  of  similar  tunnels  on 
the  same  level ;  after  which  they  extended  the  work  downwards  in 
the  form  of  steps,  removing  each  tier  of  stone  as  they  went  on,  till 
they  reached  the  lowest  part  or  intended  floor  of  the  quarry.  Some- 
times they  began  by  an  oblong  tunnel,  which  they  cut  downwards  to 
the  depth  of  one  stone's  length ;  and  they  then  continued  horizon- 
tally in  steps,  each  of  these  forming  as  usual  a  standing-place,  while 
they  cut  away  the  row  above  it.  A  similar  process  was  adopted  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  quarry,  till  at  length  two  perpendicular 
waUs  were  left,  which  constituted  its  extent ;  and  here  again  new 
openings  were  made,  and  another  chamber  connected  with  the  first 
one  was  formed  in  the  same  manner,  pillars  of  rock  being  left  here 
and  there  to  support  the  roof.  These  communications  of  one  quarry 
or  chamber  of  a  quarry  with  the  other  are  frequently  observable  in 
the  mountains  of  Masara,  where  they  foUow  in  uninterrupted  suc- 
cession for  a  considerable  distance ;  and  in  no  part  of  Egypt  is  the 
method  of  quarrying  more  clearly  shown.  The  lines  traced  on  the 
roof,  marking  the  size  and  division  of  each  set  of  blocks,  were  prob- 
ably intended  to  show  the  number  hewn  by  particular  workmen." 

The  quarries  also  served  as  a  field  of  labour  for  prisoners 
of  war  and  criminals,  and  were,  in  short,  the  Portland  or 
Dartmoor  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.  This  is  thought  to  be 
indicated  by  certain  marks  on  the  walls  of  the  galleries, 
which  are  supposed  to  mark  the  progress  of  the  work  of 
the  prisoners. 


240  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

These  quarries  offer  an  admirable  field  of  study  for  the 
geologist,  as  fossils  of  all  kind  are  plentiful.  The  ethno- 
graphical student  will  also  be  interested  in  the  remarkable 
specimens  of  flint  implements  —  relics  of  the  Stone  Age 
—  which  are  occasionally  found  in  the  desert,  between 
Helouan  and  the  Gebel  Mokattam.  These  so-called  pre- 
historic relics  do  not,  however,  point  to  such  an  extreme 
antiquity  as  is  usually  attributed  to  implements  of  the 
Stone  Age ;  for  it  is  well  known  to  scholars  that  the 
Egyptians  used  these  kinds  of  implements  as  recently  as 
the  twentieth  dynasty. 

The  Petrified  Forest,  pace  Baedeker,  who  declares  that  it 
is  one  of  the  sights  of  Egypt  which  every  traveller  makes  a 
point  of  visiting,  is  of  slight  interest  to  most  tourists,  unless 
they  are  geologists.  It  is,  however,  an  expedition  which 
should  not  be  omitted  by  strangers;  for  though  there  is 
little  to  see  at  the  forest  itself  but  a  few  fossilised  trunks, 
the  ride  on  donkey-back  makes  a  pleasant  little  desert 
expedition,  and  the  route  across  a  spur  of  the  Mokattam 
mountains  affords  magnificent  views  of  Cairo,  better  even 
than  those  obtained  from  the  Citadel,  and  at  sunset  the 
atmospheric  effects  of  the  desert  are  superb.  It  is  possible 
to  drive,  for  the  rough  track,  which  the  guide-book  digni- 
fies by  the  name  of  road,  is  practicable  for  wheeled  vehicles; 
but  this  mode  of  locomotion  will  not  be  found  at  all  satis- 
factory, and  it  is  far  preferable,  even  for  ladies,  to  make 
the  trip  in  the  orthodox  way,  on  donkeys.  A  guide  is  quite 
unnecessary,  as  every  donkey-boy  knows  the  way.  Donkey- 
boys,  it  may  be  observed,  is  a  conventional  term,  the  boys 
being  often  married  men  of  thirty  or  forty  years  of  age, 
just  as  the  post-boys  of  the  old  coaching-days. 

The  journey  there  and  back  can  be  comfortably  man- 
aged in  a  morning  or  afternoon,  though  the  guides  will 
naturally  insist  that  it  is  a  whole  day's  excursion.  For  the 
Great  Petrified  Forest,  some  half-dozen  miles  farther,  a 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  241 

whole  day  should  be  allowed ;  but  the  ride  is  tedious,  and 
a  little  too  tiring  for  all  but  the  most  robust.  If  ladies 
attempt  it,  they  should  be  careful  to  see  that  their  mount 
has  a  well-fitting  saddle. 

To  resume  our  itinerary  of  the  Small  Forest  excursion, 
a  halt  is  usually  made  at  the  so-called  Moses's  Well. 
It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  this  spring  has  not  even 
the  slightest  legendary  association  with  Moses,  but  the 
Arabs  are  fond  of  naming  geographical  features  after 
famous  biblical  characters.  This  spring  is  in  a  gorge  of 
one  of  the  Mokattam  hills,  and  the  Petrified  Forest  can 
be  soon  reached  by  active  pedestrians,  by  climbing  the 
crest  of  the  mountain.  The  mounted  members  of  the 
party  must,  however,  return  to  the  mouth  of  the  ravine, 
and  follow  the  path  which  winds  round  the  spur  of  the 
hill,  when  the  Forest  will  be  reached  in  about  half  an 
hour.  The  remains  of  the  fossil  trees  strew  the  plateau 
for  several  miles.  It  is  a  moot  point  with  geologists 
whether  the  trees  are  indigenous,  or  whether  they  were 
floated  by  water  and  became  embedded  in  the  ground,  being 
converted  in  the  course  of  many  thousands  of  years  into 
stone.  Professor  Fraas,  a  German  geologist  of  note,  con- 
siders that  these  trees  are  of  a  totally  different  family  to 
that  of  the  palm,  to  which  they  are  usually  attributed  by 
the  guides,  who  are,  of  course,  as  ignorant  of  the  elements 
of  geology  as  the  ordinary  Nile  dragoman  is  of  archaeology. 
In  his  opinion,  the  trees  are  a  kind  of  balsam,  and  he  offers 
the  following  theory  of  their  origin :  when  the  sandstone  be- 
came disintegrated,  and  in  course  of  time  was  converted  into 
the  sand  of  the  desert,  then  the  silicised  trunks  were  gradu- 
ally disengaged  from  their  sandstone  bed,  and  they  now 
cover  the  surface  of  the  Little  Khashab  for  a  distance  of  ten 
to  fifteen  miles.  Travellers  who  are  not  familiar  with  the 
appearance  of  a  vein  of  coal  will  be  greatly  struck  by  the 
appearance  of  this  formation,  regarding  which  all  kinds  of 


242  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

fanciful  theories  have  been  set  up.  The  geologist,  how- 
ever, will  simply  regard  it  as  akin  to  the  coal-measures  of 
the  Meiocene  period,  with  this  difference,  —  that  while  the 
waters  of  Europe  favoured  the  preservation  of  the  carbon 
and  the  fibre  of  the  wood,  the  silicious  sandstone  of  the 
Mokattam  converted  the  tissue  of  the  wood  into  silicic 
acid.  Specimens  of  similar  fossilised  trees  are  also  seen  in 
the  desert  beyond  the  Pyramids  of  Ghizeh,  but  these  are 
rarely  visited. 

A  charming  excursion  is  the  one  to  the  Ostrich  Farm, 
near  Matarieh.  The  route  is  past  Shubra,  the  suburb  of 
palaces,  and  round  by  Heliopolis  and  Matarieh.  The  farm 
is  run  by  an  enterprising  Frenchman.  Though  the  dry 
and  warm  climate  of  Egypt  is  particularly  well  adapted  for 
the  breeding  of  ostriches,  the  experiment  here  does  not  seem 
to  have  proved  a  great  commercial  success.  Eggs  can  be 
bought  as  mementoes  of  the  visit.  They  are  not  pitted  like 
those  of  the  South  African  ostriches,  but  are  quite  smooth. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  excursions  near 
Cairo  is  the  one  to  the  Barrage.  This  huge  structure, 
which  is  so  striking  a  feature  in  the  landscape  in  the 
railway  journey  from  Alexandria  to  Cairo,  requires  to  be 
noticed  at  some  length. 

The  Barrage,  as  it  now  stands  —  remodelled,  restored, 
and  thoroughly  serviceable — is  an  excellent  illustration 
of  the  excellent  work  carried  out  within  recent  years  by 
the  Public  Works  Department  in  the  irrigation  of  Egypt. 
All  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  life  among  the 
fellaheen  are  summed  up  in  a  thorough  system  of  irriga- 
tion. In  Egypt,  indeed,  so  far  as  practical  benefit  to  the 
community  is  concerned,  irrigation  and  drainage  are  of 
equal  importance  with  improvements  in  means  of  locomo- 
tion in  other  countries,  —  railways,  bridges,  roads,  and 
other  renumerative  public  works. 

Egypt  is  destined  by  nature  to  be  the  granary  of  Europe, 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  243 

and  its  natural  riches  consist  in  agricultural  products. 
One  can  hardly  thus  exaggerate  the  importance  of  develop- 
ing the  resources  of  its  soil.  In  Egypt,  indeed,  the  saying 
that  the  true  benefactor  is  one  who  makes  two  blades  of 
grass  grow  where  formerly  only  one  grew,  seems  especially 
applicable.  We  may  even  say  that  the  one  great  apology 
for  the  English  occupation  of  the  country  is  the  way  in 
which  Egypt's  natural  resources  have  been  developed  by 
the  Public  Works  Department,  the  creation  of  the  English. 
That  "  Egypt  is  the  gift  of  the  Nile  "  —  a  maxim  which 
has  been  repeated  with  "  damnable  reiteration ''  by  almost 
every  writer  on  Egypt  since  Herodotus  —  is  no  mere 
phrase,  and  its  truth  seems  to  have  been  recognised  in  the 
earliest  age  of  Egyptian  mythology,  when  the  Nile  was 
worshipped  as  the  Creative  Principle.  Yet  Mehemet  Ali 
failed  to  appreciate  properly  the  fact  that  the  Nile  is  all 
in  all  to  the  Egyptian,  and  that  the  genius  of  the  country 
is  embodied  in  agriculture  and  not  in  manufactures ; 
and  that  by  concentrating  his  energies  to  fostering  manu- 
factures, for  which  the  fellahs  are  naturally  unfitted, 
he  did  as  much  to  exhaust  the  national  vitality  as  in 
attempting  to  realise  his  dreams  of  foreign  conquest  and 
his  romantic  ambition  of  regenerating  the  decaying  Otto- 
man Empire.  Under  Mehemet,  the  peasants  were  torn 
away  from  their  fields  to  serve  in  the  Pacha's  armies,  or 
to  work  in  his  sugar  and  cotton  factories ;  and  Egypt  was 
both  a  vast  camp  and  a  great  factory,  and  its  energies  were 
strained  almost  to  the  breaking  point.  Even  the  climatic 
conditions  of  Egypt  are  opposed  to  the  successful  conduct 
of  textile  manufactures.  The  excessive  heat  is  said  to  be 
injurious  to  the  material,  and  the  fine  sand  which  is  blown 
about  by  every  breeze  is  destructive  to  the  machinery. 
Notwithstanding,  then,  the  low  cost  of  labour,  the  Egyp- 
tians can  be  undersold  by  foreigners  in  cotton  and  linen 
stuffs.     Besides,  the  cultivable  soil  of  Egypt,  which,  by 


244  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

every  canon  of  political  economy,  should  first  be  attended 
to,  requires  as  much  native  labour  as  the  population  can 
afford.  At  present  it  has  been  calculated  that  there  is 
only  one  able-bodied  fellah  to  every  three  acres  of  arable 
land.  These  observations  may  perhaps  help  the  visitor  to 
realise  the  significance  of  this  magnificent  monument  of 
engineering  enterprise  known  as  the  Barrage,  which,  by 
most  travellers,  is  merely  looked  upon  as  a  pleasant  goal  for 
a  picnic,  or,  at  best,  as  an  ohjectif  for  an  off-day's  excursion. 
The  object  of  this  huge  dam — the  largest  weir  outside 
India  and  the  United  States  in  the  world  —  is  to  serve 
as  a  reservoir  at  low  Nile,  to  maintain  the  river  at  the 
level  of  the  banks  and  supply  Lower  Egypt  with  the  same 
amount  of  water  as  at  the  period  of  high  Nile.  In  theory 
the  conception  was  a  grand  one,  and  some  credit  should 
be  given  to  Mehemet  Ali,  who  first  saw  the  possibility  of 
bringing  an  enormous  area  of  the  Delta  under  cultivation, 
which  hitherto,  for  want  of  any  means  of  irrigation,  was 
absolutely  unproductive.  Unfortunately,  the  original  en- 
gineers seem  to  have  bungled,  and  did  not  make  the 
foundations  strong  enough.  The  faulty  foundations  were 
due  to  haste,  and  to  lack  of  efficient  supervision  over  the 
thousands  of  ignorant  fellahs  impressed  for  the  service. 
The  engineers,  under  pressure  from  Mehemet,  insisted  on 
the  foundations  of  the  piers  being  completed  during  one 
low  Nile  period.  The  materials  were  not  properly  mixed, 
so  that  instead  of  a  solid  and  cohesive  base  of  concrete, 
the  piers  were  built  on  a  mass  of  loose  rubble  of  sand  and 
lime.  This  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at,  as  over  four 
thousand  tons  of  concrete  had  to  be  mixed  every  day. 
Thus  an  admirably  conceived  undertaking  was  wrecked  at 
the  outset  by  puerile  haste  and  deficient  control  over  the 
army  of  labourers,  amounting  to  over  eighty  thousand. 
In  consequence  of  this  "  scamped  "  workmanship,  from  its 
completion  in  1867  till  1885,  when  Sir  Colin  Scott-Mon- 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  245 

crieff,  the  head  of  the  Public  Works  Department,  under- 
took the  task  of  restoring  it,  this  huge  double  dam,  with  its 
elaborate  system  of  lock  gates,  sluices,  etc.,  was  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  white  elephant  by  the  Egyptian  Government. 

The  Barrage  consists  of  a  double  bridge  or  lock,  each 
spanning  one  of  the  two  branches  of  the  Nile,  the  Rosetta 
and  Damietta,  at  the  point  where  they  unite.  The  dam  is 
on  an  enormous  scale,  and  is  strongly  fortified.  In  fact, 
the  Barrage  was  not  merely  a  dam,  but  a  bridge,  a  fort, 
and  a  barracks.  At  a  distance  it  bears  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  a  couple  of  railway  viaducts  connected  by  a  fort. 

Abbas  Pacha  attempted  to  carry  on  this  gigantic  work, 
which  had  already  swallowed  up  so  many  million  piastres. 
A  highly  characteristic  story  of  this  worthless  ruler,  in 
connection  with  the  Barrage,  was  told  by  one  of  the  French 
engineers.  It  had  struck  the  Pacha  as  a  peculiarly  happy 
thought  to  use  the  stones  of  the  Pyramids  for  rebuilding  it. 
"You  see  the  Pyramids  standing  there  useless:  why  not 
take  the  stones  from  them  to  do  the  work?  They  have 
already  helped  to  build  Cairo."  The  engineer,  who  was 
aghast  at  the  suggestion,  but  careful  to  conceal  his  senti- 
ments, retired  from  the  presence,  feeling  that  he  was  very 
awkwardly  situated.  To  refuse  to  obey  the  Pacha  was 
impossible,  while  if  he  consented  to  the  destruction  of 
these  great  historic  monuments,  his  name  would  go  down 
to  posterity  stamped  with  infamy  as  the  destroyer  of  the 
Pyramids.  However,  a  bright  idea  struck  him.  He  would 
appeal  to  the  well-known  avarice  of  the  Pacha.  He  there- 
fore filled  several  sheets  of  paper  with  long  columns  of 
figures  and  imaginary  calculations,  which  he  brought  to 
the  Viceroy  at  his  next  audience  as  a  rough  estimate  of  the 
cost.  Abbas,  who,  of  course,  could  make  nothing  of  the 
figures,  though  evidently  impressed  by  them,  insisted  on 
having  a  verbal  estimate.  The  engineer  took  care  to  make 
it  a  high  one,  and  the  Viceroy  finally  abandoned  the  project. 


246  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  Barrage,  like  the  Suez  Canal,  was  an  undertaking 
which,  doubtless,  Napoleon  would  have  carri-ed  out,  had  his 
scheme  of  conquering  Egypt  succeeded.  Then  Mehemet 
began  it,  and  it  was  abandoned  by  Said  Pacha.  Abbas 
spent  considerable  sums  in  futile  tinkering  of  the  work. 
In  1885,  Sir  Colin  Scott-Moncrieff,  and  his  staff  of  engi- 
neers, found  that  the  arches  of  the  Damietta  branch  were 
badly  cracked,  and  that  the  whole  structure  was  faultily 
built;  and  though  an  English  board  of  engineers  had 
declared  that  to  rebuild  the  Barrage  and  make  it  of  any 
practical  use  £1,200,000  would  be  required.  Sir  Colin, 
after  six  years'  continuous  labour,  succeeded  in  making  the 
weir  thoroughly  serviceable  at  an  expenditure  of  little  more 
than  a  third  of  the  estimate  of  the  English  experts.  The 
ultimate  gain  to  Egypt  is  almost  incalculable.  Already 
the  export  of  cotton  from  the  Delta,  since  the  completion 
of  the  Barrage,  has  averaged  in  one  year  more  than  twice 
the  cost  of  the  six-years  work  of  rebuilding  it. 

The  Barrage  is,  however,  only  one  of  the  great  works  in 
connection  with  the  elaborate  system  of  irrigation  on  which 
as  much  as  eighty  thousand  pounds  was  spent  in  1896.  A 
project  closely  connected  with  the  Barrage  of  the  Delta  is 
a  huge  dam,  which  is  to  be  constructed  at  Assouan,  and 
which  will  do  for  Upper  Egypt  what  the  former  has  done 
for  the  Delta. 

Drainage  is  another  public  work  of  almost  equal  import- 
ance to  that  of  regulating  and  utilising  the  flood-waters  of 
the  Nile.  One  of  the  most  important  drainage-works  re- 
cently accomplished  was  the  pumping  out  of  Lake  Mareotis, 
near  Alexandria,  in  1896.  It  is  particularly  fitting  that  the 
reclamation  of  this  submerged  land  should  be  undertaken 
by  English  engineers,  since  the  English  troops,  when  occupy- 
ing Alexandria  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  wantonly 
cut  through  the  narrow  ridge  which  separated  the  sea  from 
the  lake,  —  at  that  time  dry  land. 


MINOR   EXCURSIONS.  247 

Over  half  a  million  has  been  spent  on  drainage  in  Egypt ; 
but,  as  Lord  Cromer  writes,  in  his  last  Annual  Report 
(1896),  "it  may  safely  be  asserted  that  funds  could  hardly 
be  applied  to  a  more  necessary  work,  or  to  one  which  would 
bring  in  a  quicker  return  on  the  capital  expended.  In 
Egypt,  exhausted  soil  recovers  its  productive  power  very 
rapidly.  Whenever  a  drain  is  dug,  the  benefit  caused  is 
quickly  apparent  in  the  shape  of  increased  produce." 

The  prevailing  impression  among  visitors  is  that  the 
irrigation  is  effected  solely  by  the  natural  submersion  of 
the  land  by  the  inundation.  This  is  only  adhered  to  in 
Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt.  In  the  Delta,  the  flood  is  diverted 
into  a  network  of  canals,  which  intersect  the  Delta  in  all 
directions,  giving  it  the  striking  appearance  of  a  vast  chess- 
board. 

Lower  Egypt  produces  three  crops.  The  winter  crop 
consists  of  cereals  of  all  kinds.  It  is  sown  in  November, 
and  harvested  in  May  or  June.  Cotton,  sugar,  and  rice 
are  the  principal  summer  crops.  They  are  sown  in  March, 
and  gathered  in  October  and  November.  Finally,  there  are 
the  autumn  crops,  rice,  maize,  and  vegetables,  sown  in 
July,  and  gathered  in  September  and  October.  In  Upper 
Egypt,  where  at  present  the  inhabitants  have  to  depend 
on  the  annual  flood  alone,  there  are  only  two  harvests  in 
the  year ;  and  the  principal  crop  is  the  winter  one  of  wheat, 
beans,  or  clover,  gathered  in  May  or  June. 

In  order  to  complete  our  survey  of  the  minor  sights  and 
excursions,  some  mention  must  be  made  of  the  various 
palaces  belonging  to  members  of  the  Khedivial  family, 
which  abound  both  in  Cairo  itself  and  the  beautiful  suburb 
of  Ghezireh  and  Shubra.  As  is  only  natural  in  a  city 
which  is  on  the  threshold  of  the  grandest  monuments  of 
antiquity,  royal  palaces  and  other  modern  buildings — for 
the  oldest  of  these  are  the  work  of  Mehemet  Ali's  archi- 
tects —  receive  but  scant  attention  at  the  hands  of  tourists ; 


248  THE    CITY   OP   THE    CALIPHS. 

but  to  those  sated  with  the  magnificent  relics  of  the  oldest 
civilisation  in  the  world,  a  morning  devoted  to  visiting 
some  of  these  royal  residences  and  their  beautiful  gardens 
would  afford  a  pleasing  contrast.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  only  a  few  can  be  seen  by  visitors,  without 
special  permission.  Among  these  Mehemet  All's  palace  at 
Shubra  (now  the  residence  of  Prince  Hasan,  the  uncle  of 
the  present  Khedive)  and  the  Ghezireh  Palace  are  most 
interesting.  The  chief  attraction  of  Prince  Hasan's  pal- 
ace is  the  magnificent  fountain  and  artificial  lake,  sur- 
rounded by  kiosque,  terraces,  and  hanging  gardens,  which 
are  quite  a  triumph  of  landscape  gardening.  From  a  ki- 
osque which  crowns  this  series  of  terraces  there  is  a  charm- 
ing view  of  the  Nile. 

The  Ghezireh  Palace  is  the  largest  of  all  the  Cairo 
palaces.  It  was  here  that  Ismail  lodged  his  illustrious 
guest,  the  Empress  Eugenie,  in  1869.  Though  now  con- 
verted into  a  fashionable  hotel,  the  Oriental  character  of 
the  building  and  its  decoration  have  been  scrupulously 
retained,  and  perhaps  no  Oriental  city  west  of  India  can 
show  such  a  superb  specimen  of  modern  domestic  archi- 
tecture as  this  admirably  restored  palace.  Ghezireh,  for 
though  this  is  a  generic  term  meaning  island,  —  the  official 
designation  Ghezireh  Boulag  being  seldom  used, — is  the 
island,  and  serves  also  as  the  Hyde  Park  and  Hurlingham 
of  Cairo,  as  well  as  the  great  focus  and  rallying-point  of 
the  European  world  of  fashion.  It  has  quite  replaced  the 
Shubra  Avenue,  once  the  fashionable  drive ;  and  the  Ezbe- 
kiya  Gardens,  given  up  now-a-days  mainly  to  Cairene 
tradespeople,  nursery-maids  of  the  European  community, 
and  English  privates,  might  be  called  the  Kensington  Gar- 
dens of  Cairo. 

The  palaces  above  mentioned,  together  with  the  Citadel, 
the  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs,  and  the  Gebel  Mokattam,  con- 
stitute the  finest  points  of  view  in  Cairo. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE   NILE   AS   A   HEALTH  -  RESORT.  ^ 

It  flows  through  old  hushed  Egypt  and  its  sands 

Like  some  grave,  mighty  thought  threading  a  dream ; 

And  time  and  things,  as  in  that  vision,  seem 

Keeping  along  it  their  eternal  stands,  — 

Cavos,  pillars,  pyramids,  the  shepherd  bands 

That  roamed  through  the  young  world ;  the  glory  extreme 

Of  high  Sesostris,  and  that  Southern  beam, 

The  laughing  queen,  that  caught  the  world's  great  hands. 

Then  comes  a  mightier  silence,  stern  and  strong, 

As  of  a  world  left  empty  of  its  throng, 

And  the  void  weighs  on  us ;  and  then  we  wake, 

And  hear  the  fruitful  stream  lapsing  along 

'Twixt  villages,  and  think  how  we  shall  take 

Our  own  calm  journey  on  for  human  sake. 

Leigh  Hunt. 

MANY  English  people,  who  are  accustomed  to  spend 
the  winter  in  one  of  the  relatively  cheap  towns  of 
the  two  Rividras,  are  often  deterred  from  wintering  in  the 
undeniably  superior  climate  of  Egypt  by  the  expense  of 
the  journey  and  the  high  cost  of  living  in  Cairo.  The 
City  of  the  Caliphs  is,  no  doubt,  one  of  the  most  expensive 
health-resorts  in  tiie-.wQrld.v_not  only  owing  to.„:fec-~hTgh 
charges  of  its  splendidly  equipped  hotels,  but  to  its  great 
vogue  as  a  fashionable  cosmopolitan  winter  city.  People 
are,  however,  beginning  to  realise  that  Cairo  is  not  nec- 
essarily Egypt;  and,  indeed,  as  a  health-resort  pure  and 
simple,  it  is,  as  we  have  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  by  no 
means  to  be  unreservedly  recommended. 

1  From  an  article  contributed  to  the  Westminster  Review,  1897. 
249 


250  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Egypt,  however,  offers  a  choice  of  some  four  or  five 
health-resorts  besides  Cairo ;  namely,  Helouan,  Mena  House 
(Pyramids),  Luxor,  Assouan,  and  the  Nile.  As  for  As- 
souan, it  should,  perhaps,  be  regarded,  in  spite  of  its  resi- 
dent doctor  and  chaplain  and  good  hotel  accommodation, 
as  a  potential,  rather  than  an  actual,  climatic  health-station. 
Helouan  is  dull  and  depressing,  and,  in  spite  of  its  golf 
links,  lacking  in  resources  and  attractions.  Then  the 
Teutonic  element  is  rather  too  much  in  evidence  at  this 
sanatorium.  Mena  House,  at  the  Pyramids,  is  undeniably 
expensive,  and  the  fashionable  society  element  too  obtru- 
sive to  make  it  a  desirable  winter  quarters  for  the  invalid. 

The  Nile  as  a  health-resort  suffers  from  none  of  these 
drawbacks,  and  the  climate  of  the  Upper  Nile  and  Nubia 
is  undeniably  superior  to  that  of  Lower  Egypt.  '^ 

The  fullest  benefit  from  the  Egyptian  climate  is  gained 
from  a  prolonged  Nile  voyage,  while  the  asepticity  —  word 
beloved  by  the  faculty  —  of  the  atmosphere  is  greater  than 
at  Luxor,  where  the  hotels  are  terribly  overcrowded  in  the 
height  of  the  season.  Then  the  Nile  itself  is  more  equable 
in  temperature  than  its  banks.  On  the  other  hand,  invalid 
passengers  on  these  miniature  pleasure-barges  —  for  one  is 
bound  to  admit  that  the  lines  of  the  dahabiyeh  approxi- 
mate more  nearly  to  those  of  a  Thames  house-boat  than  to 
a  yacht  —  are  not  well  protected  from  cold  winds,  which 
makes  some  physicians  look  askance  on  dahabiyeh  trips  for 
persons  with  delicate  lungs.  Besides,  though  the  actual  ex- 
tremes of  temperature  are  actually  less  on  the  rivers  than 
in  the  desert,  the  difference  is  felt  more  by  patients  than 
when  protected  by  the  thick  walls  of  a  hotel.  It  is  curi- 
ous, too,  that  the  cold  at  night  seems  to  increase  the 
farther-one  goes  south.  These  constitute  the  only  real 
drawbacks  to  dahabiyehs  for  delicate  persons. 

Formerly,  the  only  orthodox  way  of  doing  the  Nile  voy- 
age was  by  means  of  these  native  sailing-boats,  universally 


THE   NILE   AS   A   HEALTH-RESORT.  251 

known  as  dahabiyehs,  and  the  costliness  of  this  means  of 
locomotion  practically  confined  it  to  the  English  milord. 
Of  late  years,  however,  the  wholesome  competition  of  the 
great  tourist-agencies  has  brought  about  a  general  reduc- 
tion in  the  rents  of  these  pleasure-craft.  With  a  party  of 
four  or  five,  the  inclusive  cost  of  the  two  months'  voyage 
to  Assouan  and  back  need  not  exceed  XllO  to  X120  per 
head,  —  granting,  of  course,  that  the  organiser  of  the  trip 
knows  the  river,  has  had  some  experience  of  Nile  travel, 
has  a  nodding  acquaintance  with  Arabic,  and  is  able  to 
hold  his  own  with  his  dragoman. 

For  the  health-seeker  as  well  as  the  mere  holiday-maker, 
the  dahabiyeh  voyage  is  certainly  the  ideal  method  of 
spending  a  winter  in  Egypt.  In  short,  this  form  of  the 
new  yachting  is  to  the  invalid  what  the  pleasure  yacht- 
ing cruise  —  the  latest  development  of  cooperative  travel 
—  is  to  the  ordinary  tourist.  Though  independent,  the 
traveller  is  not  isolated,  and  can  always  get  in  touch  with 
civilisation  as  represented  by  the  tourist  steamers  and 
mail-boats,  which  virtually  patrol  the  Nile  from  Cairo  to 
Wady  Haifa.  Then  he  is  never  more  than  a  few  hours' 
sail  from  a  railway  station,  —  the  line  for  the  greater  part 
of  its  length  running  along  the  Nile  banks,  and  almost 
every  station  is  a  telegraph  office  as  well.  English  doctors 
and  chaplains  are  to  be  found  throughout  the  season  at 
the  chief  goals  of  the  voyage,  Luxor  and  Assouan ;  while, 
in  cases  of  emergency,  the  services  of  the  medical  men 
attached  to  the  tourist  steamers  are  available.  The  voy- 
age is  eminently  restful,  without  being  dull  or  monotonous. 
In  fact,  the  Nile  being  the  great  highway  of  traffic  for 
Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt  to  Cairo  and  Alexandria,  there 
is  constant  variety,  and  the  river  traffic  affords  plenty  of 
life  and  movement.  One  constantly  passes  the  pictur- 
esque trading-dahabiyehs  gliding  along  with  their  enormous 
lateen  sails,  the  artistic  effect  being  heightened  by  contrast 


252  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

with  a  trim,  modern  steam-dahabiyeh,  as  incongruous  a 
craft  as  a  gondola  turned  into  a  steam-launch,  and  utterly 
opposed  to  the  traditions  of  Nile  travel,  —  too  reminiscent, 
perhaps,  of  Cookham  Reach  or  Henley.  The  banks  of 
the  river,  quite  apart  from  the  temples  and  monuments 
of  antiquity,  are  also  full  of  interest  for  the  observant 
voyager,  who  may  congratulate  himself  on  the  superiority 
of  his  lot  to  his  less  fortunate  invalid  brethren  winter- 
ing on  the  Riviera,  "  killing  time  till  time  kills  them,"  — 
chained  for  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  perhaps,  to  the 
hotel  balcony  or  Villa  Garden  at  Mentone,  Monte  Carlo, 
or  San  Remo. 

Delightful  "  bits  "  for  the  sketch-book  are  constantly  to 
be  met  with.  At  almost  every  village,  —  and  many  are 
passed  in  a  day's  sail,  —  native  women  may  be  seen  filling 
their  earthen  jars  with  water,  and  carrying  them  on  their 
heads  with  all  the  grace  and  poetry  of  motion  of  a  Ca- 
priote  girl.  Jabbering  gamins  are  driving  down  the  banks 
the  curious  little  buffaloes  to  water.  Every  now  and  then 
we  pass  a  shadoof  tended  by  a  fellah  with  skin  shining  like 
bronze,  relieving  his  toil  with  that  peculiar  wailing  chant 
which  seems  to  the  imaginative  listener  like  the  echo  of 
the  Israelites'  cry  under  their  taskmasters  wafted  across 
the  centuries.  The  shrill  note  of  a  steamer- whistle  puts  to 
flight  these  poetical  fancies,  and  one  of  the  Messrs.  Cook's 
tourist  steamers,  looking  for  all  the  world  like  a  Hudson 
or  Mississippi  River  steamer,  dashes  past  at  twelve  knots  an 
hour,  filled  with  tourists  more  or  less  noisily  appreciative 
of  the  Nile  scenery.  However,  this  incongruous  and  in- 
sistent note  of  modernity  is  fleeting  enough.  Has  not 
the  appointed  goal  —  some  fifty  miles  or  so  higher  up  —  to 
be  reached  by  dusk,  else  the  arrangements  of  the  whole  Nile 
itinerary,  and  the  plans  of  hundreds  of  tourists  would  be 
utterly  upset  ? 

Animal  life,  to  say  nothing  of  bird  life,  is  far  more 


THE    NILE   AS   A   HEALTH-RESORT.  253 

abundant  than  in  Italy  or  France.  Flocks  of  pelicans 
stud  the  sand-banks,  and  the  white  paddy-birds  may  be 
seen  busily  engaged  in  fishing,  while  brilliantly  decked 
kingfishers,  graceful  hoopoes,  sun-birds,  and  crested  larks, 
to  say  nothing  of  our  familiar  friends  the  swifts,  swallows, 
and  water  wag-tails,  are  flitting  about  over  the  water. 
Occasionally,  a  keen-sighted  traveller  will  get  a  glimpse  of 
an  eagle  or  vulture. 

Reptiles  are  represented  by  various  kinds  of  lizards  and 
chameleons.  Crocodiles,  of  course,  are  never  seen  below 
the  Second  Cataract;  though  the  monitor  lizard,  often  mis- 
taken for  this  reptile,  is  occasionally  seen,  and  the  unwary 
tourist  occasionally  has  stuffed  specimens  palmed  off  upon 
him,  by  the  wily  Egyptian,  as  young  crocodiles. 

Hypercritical  travellers  occasionally  complain  that  the 
scenery  of  the  Nile,  especially  of  that  long  two  hundred 
miles'  reach  of  desolate  country  which  lies  between  the 
First  and  Second  Cataracts,  is  monotonous.  It  is  true 
that  there  is  not  as  much  variety  in  the  landscape  as  there 
is  south  of  Luxor,  for  instance,  and  human  interest  is 
certainly  almost  non-existent ;  but  though  the  conventional 
picturesqueness  may  be  lacking  for  the  young  lady  artist 
who  has  only  eyes  for  little  bits  that  "compose  "  easily,  the 
grand  and  impressive  aspect  of  the  Nubian  landscape  has 
a  certain  charm  and  attractiveness  of  its  own  to  the  im- 
aginative traveller. 

The  monotony  is,  perhaps,  more  subjective  than  objec- 
tive, and  belongs  to  the  spectator,  and  not  to  the  things 
seen.  To  some  a  great  London  highway  like  the  Strand 
would  be  monotonous,  while  another  would  find  the  same 
fault  with  the  Alps,  because  each  peak  seems  to  him  very 
like  another.  At  all  events,  even  if  we  grant  a  certain 
scenic  monotony  to  the  Upper  Nile,  who  can  complain 
when  the  traveller  has  daily  presented  to  him  the  unique 
beauties  of  the  Nile  sunset,  with  its  attendant  glories  of  the 
zodiacal  light? 


254  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Perhaps  of  all  the  wonderful  scenic  effects  of  the  Nile, 
the  almost  miraculous  afterglow  which  follows  the  sunset 
is  the  most  impressive.  Only  those  with  a  true  "  feeling 
for  colour  "  can  properly  appreciate  it,  and  to  attempt  to 
portray  it  either  with  pen  or  pencil  would  be  futile.  These 
startling  effects  may  be  called  miraculous  because  inex- 
plicable. In  the  tropics,  as  every  one  knows,  there  is  no 
afterglow. 

"  The  sun's  rim  dips ;  the  stars  rush  out ; 
At  one  stride  comes  the  dark," 

sings  Coleridge's  "  Ancient  Mariner."  Only  a  scientist  can 
explain  why,  in  Egypt,  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  Tropic 
of  Cancer,  the  sunset's  afterglow  lasts  thrice  as  long  as  it 
does  elsewhere  in  the  temperate  zone. 

Innumerable  travellers  have  attempted  to  give  an  im- 
pressionist picture  of  the  mysterious  light-effect  produced 
by  the  flood  of  liquid  gold  which  suffuses  the  whole  hori- 
zon after  the  sun's  disc  has  disappeared.  Mr.  H.  D.  Traill, 
perhaps,  is  as  happy  as  any  observer  in  the  following  charm- 
ing word-picture : 

"  Brighter  and  brighter  grows  the  afterglow,  and  more  and  more 
golden  as  it  brightens,  —  the  red  rays  of  the  prism,  which  assume  such 
prominence  in  most  European  sunsets,  seeming  here  to  be  far  sur- 
passed in  intensity  by  the  yellow.  .  .  .  During  this  reillumining  of 
the  landscape,  the  deep  orange  of  the  western  horizon  has  glowed 
steadily  and  undimmed ;  but,  meanwhile,  the  quarter  of  the  heavens 
lying  immediately  above  it  has  undergone  an  astonishing  change. 
For  slowly,  during  all  the  time,  there  has  been  ascending,  from  the 
skyline  of  the  desert  as  its  base,  and  to  an  altitude  of  full  thirty 
degrees  above  it,  a  glorious  arc  of  the  softest  rose  colour,  which 
melts  as  it  draws  nearer  to  the  blue  of  the  zenith  into  a  gradually 
paling  lilac,  through  the  very  midst  of  which  looks  forth  the  silver 
of  the  evening  star.  The  chastened  magnificence,  the  sober  splen- 
dour of  this  atmospheric  effect,  surpasses  imagination.  It  is  the 
very  classicism  of  colour,  just  as  the  gorgeous  hues  of  the  actual 
sunset  —  its  splashes  of  fierce  crimson  and  blazing  gold  —  might 
stand  as  typical  of  the  rich  exuberance  of  romance.     But  the  time 


THE    NILE   AS   A   HEALTH-RESORT.  255 

and  space  of  this  aerial  marvel,  the  sphere  of  its  radiance,  and  the 
spell  of  its  duration  are,  perhaps,  most  wonderful  of  all.  Laterally 
measured,  this  arc  of  glory  spans  a  full  quarter  of  the  horizon. 
Vertically,  as  has  already  been  said,  it  climbs  at  least  one-third  of 
the  dome  of  sky  between  the  horizon  and  the  zenith ;  and  it  lasts  in 
flawless  and  unimpaired  beauty  for  a  full  half-hour„  The  sunset 
orange,  against  which  yon  passing  string  of  camels  and  their  tur- 
banned  leaders  are  silhouettes  black  as  jet,  will  have  faded  into 
purple  haze,  the  evening  star  will  have  changed  from  a  rayless 
speck  of  silver  into  a  flashing  jewel,  and  the  lake  of  lilac  in  which 
it  swims  will  have  become  blanched  and  colourless  ere  that  great 
rose-window  through  which  we  have  been  gazing,  as  into  the  lighted 
cathedral  of  the  heavens,  is  itself  at  last  swallowed  up  in  night." 

Life  on  a  dahabiyeh  has  many  of  the  advantages  of  a 
luxuriously  appointed  yacht,  without  its  inseparable  and 
obvious  drawbacks.  There  arejio  siauna^  and,  indeed,  no 
calms,  for  a  northern  wind  blows  as  regularly  as  a  trade 
wind,  almost  continuously  during  the  winter  and  spring 
months.  You  stop  where  you  please,  and  as  long  as  you 
please,  without  a  thought  of  harbour  dues,  or  anxiety  as  to 
the  holding  capacity  of  the  anchorage.  You  can  spend 
your  time  sketching,  reading,  or  dozing,  with  a  little  shoot- 
ing to  give  a  fillip  to  the  perpetual  doleefar  niente.  You 
can  explore  ruined  temples  and  ancient  monuments  at 
your  leisure,  without  the  disquieting  reflections  that  the 
Theban  ruins  or  the  Ptolemaic  temples  of  Philae  must 
be  "  done  "  in  a  certain  time,  else  the  tourist  steamer  will 
proceed  on  its  imalterable  itinerary  without  you.  Finally, 
when  tired  of  this  perpetual  picnic,  you  can  enjoy  for  a  few 
days  the  banal  delights  of  a  first-class  modern  hotel  at 
Luxor  or  Assouan. 

Such  is  life  on  a  dahabiyeh;  but,  alas!  this  Epicurean 
existence  is  not  for  the  ordinary  sun-worshipper.  As  I 
have  shown,  it  is  a  particularly  costly  form  of  holiday- 
making,  though  the  expense  has  been  much  exaggerated. 

The  valuable  advice  given  in  Murray's  "  Handbook  for 


256  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Egypt,"  on  the  hiring  of  dahabiyehs,  may  be  supplemented  by 
the  following  hints.  If  the  hirer  is  a  novice  in  Nile  travel, 
or  is  not  prepared  to  take  a  considerable  amount  of  trouble, 
it  will  be  better  to  hire  the  vessel  through  the  Messrs.  Cook 
or  Gaze,  direct.  But  in  this  case  the  hirer  will  not  be  so 
likely  to  feel  himself  "  captain  on  his  own  quarter-deck  " 
as  he  would  if  he  hired  direct  from  the  owner.  In  the 
latter  case  it  is  decidedly  an  advantage  to  make  a  separate 
contract  with  the  dragoman  for  the  catering  of  the  passen- 
gers, and  another  contract  with  the  owner  direct  for  the 
hire  of  the  dahabiyeh,  with  fittings  (which  should  be  specifi- 
cally set  out),  and  for  the  wages  of  the  reis  (sailing-master) 
and  crew.  If,  however,  the  contract  is  made  with  the 
dragoman  solely,  then  take  pains  to  ascertain  that  the  boat 
is  not  the  dragoman's  property,  else  the  temporary  owner 
may  find  it  difficult  to  maintain  his  authority ;  and,  besides, 
the  dragoman  will  naturally  be  inclined  to  be  too  careful  of 
his  craft,  and  will  raise  difficulties  about  shooting  the  cata- 
racts or  sailing  at  night.  In  short,  the  hirer  will  possibly 
find  himself  at  as  great  a  disadvantage  as  a  yacht-owner  in 
a  foreign  cruise  who  has  neglected  to  have  himself  regis- 
tered in  the  yacht's  papers  as  master. 

As  to  the  time  occupied  in  the  voyage  from  Cairo  to 
Assouan  and  back,  with  favourable  winds,  it  can  be  man- 
aged in  seven  or  eight  weeks.  But  this  would  only  allow 
three  or  four  days  at  Luxor  and  Assouan.  Besides,  any- 
thing like  hurry  is  utterly  foreign  to  the  traditions  of  Nile 
voyaging,  and  three  months  would  not  be  found  too  long 
for  this  trip.  It  may  be  remembered,  too,  that  if  the  con- 
tract is  for  three  months,  the  cost  would  be  considerably 
less  relatively  than  for  two  months. 

The  rates  for  dahabiyehs  vary  considerably  according 
to  their  size,  age,  and  amount  and  nature  of  equipment  and 
decorations.  But  as  some  indication  of  the  prevailing  price, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Messrs.  Cook  would  charge 


THE    NILE   AS   A   HEALTH-RESORT.  257 

a  party  of  seven,  for  three  months  on  one  of  the  oldest  type 
of  dahabiyehs,  X850  to  £900,  this  price  to  include  every- 
thing ;  while  the  charge  for  a  modern  dahabiyeh,  luxuri- 
ously fitted  up  with  bath-room,  pantry,  lavatories,  etc.,  for 
the  same  period  and  the  same  number  of  passengers,  might 
be  anything  from  £1,100  upwards. 

Life  on  a  dahabiyeh  is,  no  doubt,  a  lotus-eating  existence, 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  resist  the  spell  of  the  climate  and  the 
restful  genius  loci  of  this  enchanted  land. 

«  To  glide  adown  old  Nilns,  where  he  threads 
Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  from  the  steep 
Of  utmost  Axum6,  until  he  spreads, 
Like  a  calm  flock  of  silver-fleeced  sheep, 
His  waters  on  the  plain ;  and  crested  heads 
Of  cities  and  proud  temples  gleam  amid, 
And  many  a  vapour-belted  pyramid." 

But  even  the  most  hardened  loafer  and  lover  of  the  dolce 
far  niente  cannot  help  taking  some  interest  in  the  grand 
monuments  of  an  extinct  civilisation,  as  well  as  in  the  archae- 
ological treasures,  which  so  plentifully  strew  the  river  banks. 
Probably  no  great  tourist-highway  in  the  world  offers  so 
many  easily  accessible  objects  of  historic  and  antiquarian 
interest  as  the  Nile.  Then,  on  a  Nile  voyage,  sight-seeing 
is  carried  on  under  ideal  conditions.  It  is  a  delightful 
relief  to  one  accustomed  to  the  hard  labour  of  systematic 
sight-seeing  at  Rome,  Florence,  or  Venice,  for  instance,  to 
wander  leisurely  and  uninterruptedly  through  the  sun- 
steeped  courts  and  shady  colonnades  of  the  ancient  temples 
of  Karnak  or  Philae.  Another  advantage  is  that  here  the 
visitors  need  not  be  continually  disbursing  petty  cash  for 
entrance  fees,  gratuities  to  attendants,  guides,  catalogues, 
etc.  In  Egypt,  the  single  payment  of  £1,  6(£,  the  Govern- 
ment tax,  franks  the  tourist  not  only  to  these  Theban 
treasure-houses  of  ancient  art,  but  to  all  the  monuments 
and  temples  of  Upper  Egypt. 


258  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

A  series  of  voyages  in  the  well-found  and  well-equipped 
tourist  steamers  of  Messrs.  Cook  and  Gaze  will  be  found, 
however,  a  tolerable  substitute  for  the  invalid.  In  fact, 
the  Messrs.  Cook  specially  cater  for  this  class  of  tourists  by 
offering  special  terms  to  passengers  making  three  consecu- 
tive trips  on  the  basis  of  three  voyages  at  the  price  of  two. 
By  this  plan  passengers  can  make  three  voyages  from 
Cairo  to  Assouan  and  back  for  .£100,  the  fare  including 
board  on  the  steamer  during  the  few  days'  stay  at  Cairo 
between  the  voyages.  Thus  nine  weeks  may  be  spent  on 
the  Nile  at  a  less  cost  than  a  stay  for  the  same  period  at 
a  fashionable  Cairo  hotel.  Considering  that  the  mileage 
covered  by  these  voyages  amounts  to  about  3,500  miles,  — 
equal  to  the  distance  from  London  to  Alexandria  by  sea, — 
it  is  not  surprising  that  this  remarkably  economical  method 
of  undertaking  what  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  most 
expensive  of  river  trips  in  the  globe-trotter's  itinerary  is 
becoming  popular. 

The  cuisine  on  board  these  steamers,  as  will  be  seen 
from  the  annexed  specimen  menu,  is  varied  and  plentiful, 
if  not  actually  luxurious,  and  should  satisfy  the  most  exi- 
gent traveller. 

Menu  on  Nile  Tourist  Steamer. 
December  1st,  1896. 

LUNCHEON. 

Hors  d'CEuvres. 

Rougets  au  Vin  Blanc.  Poulets  au  Saut6  au  Mad^re. 

Roast  Beef  —  Pommes  de  Terre. 

Salade.  Fromage. 

Dessert. 

Caf6 


DINNER. 

Consomm^  Pat6  d'ltalie. 

Poisson  a  la  Orly. 

Noix  de  Veau  k  la  Livernaise. 

Epinards  aux  (Eufs.  B^cassines  Roties. 

Salade.  Baba  au  Pdches. 

Dessert. 

Caf6. 


THE    NILE    AS   A   HEALTH  -  KESORT.  259 

Many  who  take  the  Nile  trip  for  the  sake  of  health  could 
scarcely  be  considered  sick  persons,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
these  sturdy  invalids  I  add  the  following  hints  on  the  sport 
to  be  obtained  during  a  Nile  voyage. 

Of  course  all  the  best  shooting  is  in  the  Delta,  but  a 
certain  amount  of  sport  is  obtainable  by  dahabiyeh  travel- 
lers, especially  in  the  Theban  plain.  Above  Luxor,  owing 
to  the  scarcity  of  vegetation,  there  is  less  cover,  and  hares 
and  partridges  are  not  so  plentiful.  Of  late  years,  too,  the 
English  officers  stationed  at  the  different  posts  on  the  Up- 
per Nile  have  thinned  the  game  a  good  deal.  In  Lower 
Egypt  fair  bags  of  snipe  can  be  obtained.  In  fact,  snipe  is 
the  principal  winter  game  in  Egypt,  just  as  quail  is  during 
the  spring  months.  The  former,  however,  are  rarely  seen 
on  the  Upper  Nile,  though  quail  are  plentiful.  Duck  and 
teal,  everywhere  on  the  Upper  Nile,  afford  the  best  sport 
for  dahabiyeh  passengers,  and  the  dinghy  (^filuJca,  whence 
felucca)  attached  to  every  dahabiyeh  will  sometimes  serve 
to  capture  the  shot  birds  in  wild-fowl  shooting. 

Big  gamfi_ia__Yfii:y.,sca,rce,  even  in  the  desert  near  Wady 
Haifa,  and  sporting  tourists  fired  by  the  ,  accounts  of 
earlier  generations  of  travellers,  of  hyenas,  wolves,  and 
jackals  haunting  the  Theban  temples,  will  be  disappointed. 
Hyenas,  like  crocodiles,  are  rarely  met  with  below  the 
Second  Cataract.  In  fact,  even  to  get  a  remote  chance  of 
bagging  these  beasts,  cooperation  with  the  natives  and  a 
large  outlay  of  baksheesh  would  be  necessary.  The  sports- 
man would  have  to  be  prepared  to  camp  out  at  night  at 
their  supposed  haunts,  which  would  have  to  be  baited  with 
the  carcass  of  a  donkey  or  some  other  domestic  animal. 
Gazelles  are  occasionally  shot,  but  they  require  a  consid- 
erable amount  of  stalking.  It  must  be  remembered  that, 
though  permission  to  bring  a  sporting  rifle  or  gun  is 
readily  granted  to  English  tourists  by  the  military  authori- 
ties at  Cairo,  the  import  of  powder  or  loaded  cartridges 


260  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

has,  since   1894,  for   obvious   reasons,  been   strictly  pro- 
hibited, and  all  ammunition  must  be  bought  at  Cairo. 

Sportsmen  should  be  careful  about  shooting  pigeons  in 
the  vicinity  of  a  village,  otherwise  they  may  get  into  diffi- 
culties with  the  natives  through  shooting  pigeons  which 
are  alleged  to  be  domestic.  As  in  France,  no  game  license 
is  necessary. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   NILE   FROM   CAIRO    TO   THEBES. 

THE  very  mention  of  a  Nile  voyage  recalls  to  most 
travellers  the  splendid  monuments  of  Thebes,  Philae^ 
and  Abou  Simbel,  while  the  ruins  south  of  Luxor,  some  of 
which  (those  of  Abydos  in  particular)  historically  perhaps 
of  equal  importance,  are  forgotten.  No  doubt  the  wealth 
of  architectural  treasures  collected  in  one  spot  in  the  Theban 
plain  obscures  in  popular  imagination  the  isolated  temples 
of  Abydos  or  Denderah,  or  the  ancient  rock-shrines  of  Beni- 
Hassan.  In  short,  nine  out  of  ten  travellers  hurry  on  to 
the  ruins  of  the  Theban  plain,  and  leave  the  ancient 
temples  or  tombs  which  bestrew  the  Nile  Yalley  between 
Cairo  and  Luxor  for  a  hurried  and  somewhat  perfunctory 
inspection  on  the  return  voyage,  when,  sated  with  the  arch- 
itectural splendours  of  ancient  Thebes,  the  less  striking 
monuments  north  of  Luxor  come  as  an  anti-climax. 

We  are  all  apt  to  forget,  as  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards  is  care- 
ful to  remind  her  readers,  that  the  ancient  history  of  Egypt 
goes  against  the  stream.  If  we  omit  the  conjectural,  per- 
haps mythical,  site  of  This,  which  is  almost  prehistoric,  — 
and  indeed  the  claims  of  Abydos  and  Girgeh  are  still  wran- 
gled over  by  Egyptologists,  —  it  is  in  the  Delta  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  Lower  Nile  that  relics  of  the  most  ancient 
cities  are  to  be  found  (at  Tanis,  Memphis,  and  Heliopolis, 
for  instance),  while  the  latest  temples  and  tombs  are 
found  in  the  Upper  Nile  Valley,  and  in  Nubia. 

Those  whose  study  of  Egyptian  antiquities  is  confined  to 
the  standard  guide-books  forget,  too,  that  only  the  more 

261 


262  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

important  monuments,  or  those  in  tolerable  preservation,  are 
ever  mentioned.  First-hand  study  of  the  chief  authorities 
shows  that  a  complete  Egyptological  itinerary  of  the  Nile 
Valley  would  include  antiquities  of  which  only  a  very  small 
portion  are  visited  by  the  ordinary  Nile  voyager. 

Beni-Hassan,  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles  from  Cairo, 
is  remarkable  for  the  famous  rock-tombs  excavated  in  ter- 
races on  the  precipitous  bank  of  the  Nile.  The  cliff  has 
been  cut  through  by  the  river,  which  formerly  reached  to  its 
foot,  but  has  since  retired,  so  that  a  considerable  expanse  of 
plain  lies  between  the  tombs  and  the  Nile.  These  tombs 
belong  to  the  twelfth  dynasty,  which  dates  from  about 
3000  to  2500  years  b.  c.  Though  nearly  a  thousand  years 
more  recent  than  the  Sakkarah  mastabas,  they  have  pre- 
served the  chief  features  of  them,  and  have  a  deep  shaft 
leading  to  a  corridor  which  ends  in  a  sarcophagus  chamber. 
There  are  about  fifteen  of  these  tombs,  most  of  which  are 
carefully  described  in  Murray's  Handbook,  but  only  two  of 
them,  those  of  Ameni  or  Amen-Em-Hat  ahd  Khnem-Hetep 
II.,  are  likely  to  interest  the  average  sight-seer. 

"  As  in  the  tombs  of  Assouan,  a  suitable  layer  of  stone  was 
sought  for  in  the  hill,  and,  when  found,  the  tombs  were  hewn  out. 
The  walls  were  partly  smoothed,  and  then  covered  with  a  thin  layer 
of  plaster,  upon  which  the  scenes  in  the  lives  of  the  people  buried 
there  might  be  painted.  The  columns  and  the  lower  parts  of  some 
of  the  tombs  are  coloured  red,  to  resemble  granite.  The  northern 
tomb  is  remarkable  for  columns  somewhat  resembling  those  subse- 
quently termed  Doric.  Each  of  the  four  columns  in  the  tomb  is 
about  seventeen  feet  high,  and  has  sixteen  sides.  The  ceiling 
between  each  connecting  beam,  which  runs  from  column  to  column, 
is  vaulted.  The  columns  in  the  southern  tombs  have  lotus  decora- 
tions, and  are  exceedingly  graceful.  "^ 

To  the  artist  these  famous  grottoes  are  of  enormous 
interest  as  the  birthplace  of  Greek  decorative  art.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  most  ancient  school  of  design  in  the  world  of 

1 E.  A.  WaUis-Budge:  "  The  Nile." 


THE   NILE    FKOM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  263 

Greek  art  is  most  ingeniously  traced  by  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards 
in  her  "  Pharaohs,  Fellahs,  and  Explorers,"  a  work  which, 
though  rather  handicapped  by  its  somewhat  ad  captandum 
title,  is  of  the  highest  value  as  a  thoroughly  well-informed 
introduction  to  the  science  of  Egyptology,  treated  in  a  pop- 
ular manner.  The  Pelasgic  decoration  and  paintings,  of 
which  excellent  specimens  have  been  found  at  Mycenae,  are 
thought  by  many  scholars  of  the  highest  repute  to  be  the 
originals  of  those  of  the  Aryan  Hellenes.  The  dark  inter- 
val of  four  or  five  hundred  years  between  the  prehistoric 
ruins  of  Mycenae  and  the  oldest  remains  of  the  historic 
school  cannot,  however,  be  bridged  over  with  any  certainty. 
It  is,  nevertheless,  conclusively  proved  that  the  "  Pelasgians 
went  to  Egypt  for  their  surface  decoration,  and  the  Hellenes 
for  their  architectural  models." 

The  principal  sculptural  ornaments,  such  as  the  spiral, 
the  key  pattern,  and  the  so-called  honeysuckle  pattern,  — 
the  latter,  according  to  Mr.  Petrie,  a  florid  imitation  of  the 
Egyptian  lotus  pattern,  —  which  are  often  regarded  as 
purely  Greek  in  origin,  are  undoubtedly  Egyptian.  "  They 
were  all  painted  on  the  ceilings  of  the  Beni-Hassan  tombs, 
full  twelve  hundred  years  before  a  stone  of  the  treasures  of 
Mycenae  or  Orchomonos  was  cut  from  the  quarry."  The 
spiral  is  continually  found,  either  in  its  simplest  form 
or  combined  with  the  lotus,  in  the  decorations  of  these 
tombs. 

The  earliest  monument  of  Greek  architecture  is  identi- 
fied with  the  ruins  of  a  Doric  temple  at  Corinth  of  about 
650  B.  c. ;  and  any  one  of  the  columns  of  this  —  the  old- 
est ruin  in  Greece  —  might  have  been  taken  bodily  from 
one  of  the  pillared  porches  of  Beni-Hassan.  In  fact,  Fer- 
gusson,  one  of  the  highest  authorities,  does  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  it  is  an  indubitable  copy  of  the  Beni-Hassan 
column.  This  type  of  column,  technically  known  as  the 
protodoric,  is,  as  the  name  implies,  the  prototype  of  the 


264  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

famous  Doric  columns,  —  loftier,  more  graceful,  and  with  a 
decorated,  not  a  plain,  entablature.  There  are,  of  course, 
other  examples  of  this  style  in  Egypt,  and  those  who  have 
visited  Thebes  will  remember  the  famous  Corinthian  col- 
umns of  the  Temple  of  Thotmes  III.  at  Karnak. 

An  early  origin  may  be  allowed  to  the  Ionic  column. 
The  lotus-leaf  design  —  a  characteristic,  decorative  feature 
of  this  class  of  column  —  "  furnished  the  architects  of  the 
Ancient  Empire  with  a  noble  and  simple  model  for  decora- 
tive purposes.  Very  slightly  conventionalised,  it  enriches 
the  severe  fa9ade8  of  tombs  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
dynasties,  which  thus  preserve  for  us  one  of  the  earliest 
motives  of  symmetrical  design  in  the  history  of  ornament." 

The  evolution  of  the  elaborate  rock-sculptures  of  Beni- 
Hassan  and  Abou  Simbel  from  the  almost  prehistoric  rock 
grotto  makes  an  interesting  subject  for  those  who  are 
attracted  by  the  study  of  necrology,  and  of  the  sepulchral 
monuments  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

A  very  able  and  lucid  summary  of  the  development  of 
rock-tombs  is  to  be  found  in  a  chapter  on  the  art  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians  in  Baedeker's  Handbook.  It  is,  no  doubt, 
customary  among  high-minded  travellers  to  despise  guide- 
book information,  but  in  few  technical  works  on  this  sub- 
ject will  so  clever  and  readable  a  summary  be  found  as  in 
the  above-mentioned  indispensable  work  of  reference. 

"  The  original  motive  of  the  rock-tomb  or  sepulchral  grotto  was 
merely  to  find  a  tomb  sufficiently  removed  from  all  risk  of  flooding 
by  the  Nile,  with  a  sufficiently  dry  and  aseptic  atmosphere  to  arrest 
the  decay  of  the  corpse.  Soon  a  kind  of  mortuary  chamber  for 
mourners  and  friends  was  also  excavated  in  the  rock.  This  was 
followed  by  a  more  pretentious  mausoleum  with  several  chambers. 
This  large  area  of  wall  surface  seemed  to  demand  some  kind  of 
ornamentation.  Hence  the  sculptures  in  low-relief  and  distemper 
paintings.  Where  there  were  several  chambers,  it  was  natural  that 
openings  should  be  made  in  the  walls  to  admit  the  light.  The  next 
step  was  to  convert  the  remaining  portions  of  walls  into  polygonal 


THE    NILE    FROM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  265 

pillars  for  the  support  of  the  roof.  In  the  next  place,  the  octagonal 
pillar  was  sometimes  turned  into  one  of  sixteen  sides,  and  some- 
times it  was  fluted.  Thus  the  pillars  were  converted  into  columns, 
—  a  distinction  with  a  considerable  difference,  —  those  columns 
which  were,  no  doubt,  the  direct  originals  of  the  better  known  Doric 
columns,  and  were  called  Protodoric  or  Egypto-Doric  by  Champol- 
lion  and  Falkener,  from  the  resemblance  to  the  Doric  columns  of 
Greece.  Polygonal  columns  of  this  character  occur  in  the  first  tomb 
of  Beni-Hassan. 

"  The  architects  of  these  tombs,  however,  were  not  unacquainted 
with  a  light  and  elegant  mode  of  building  above  ground,  which  can- 
not have  originated  in  the  gTotto  architecture.  This  is  proved  by 
their  use  of  the  lotus  column,  the  prototype  of  which  is  a  group  of 
four  lotus-stalks,  bound  together  and  secured  at  the  top  by  rings  or 
ligatures,  the  capital  being  formed  by  the  blossom. 

"While  the  architecture  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  dynasties 
bears  some  slight  resemblance  to  the  earlier  style,  the  sculpture  of 
the  same  period  presents  an  almost  total  deviation  from  the  ancient 
traditions.  The  primitive  lifelike  realism,  to  which  we  have  already 
alluded,  is  displaced  by  the  rigorous  sway  of  the  canon,  by  which 
all  proportions  are  determined  by  fixed  rules,  and  all  forms  are 
necessarily  stereotyped.  There  seems,  however,  to  have  been  no 
retrogression  in  point  of  technical  skill,  for,  as  in  the  time  of 
Khafra,  the  hardest  materials  still  became  compliant,  and  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  minutest  detail  were  still  successfully  overcome  by  the 
sculptor  of  the  Pharaohs." 

The  mural  decorations  consist  mostly  of  pictures,  painted 
on  a  specially  prepared  surface  of  fine-grained  plaster ;  and 
there  are  few  relief  sculptures.  These  paintings  represent 
scenes  in  the  life  of  the  deceased,  and  form  a  kind  of  pic- 
torial biography,  which  are  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  paint- 
ings of  later  tombs,  intermingled  with  the  conventional 
mystic  representations  of  divinities.  "  In  the  grouping  of 
the  various  scenes,  the  artists  seem  to  have  been  guided  by 
a  natural  principle,  which  led  them  to  place  the  Nile  in  the 
lowest  register,  the  agricultural  scenes  in  the  middle,  and 
desert  scenes  at  the  top.  But  little  technical  skill  is  shown 
in  the  drawing.     The  birds  are  always  better  drawn  than 


266  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

the  human  figures ;  but  the  natural  features  of  the  country 
are  represented  in  the  most  conventional  way,  a  series  of 
zigzag  lines  standing  for  water,  and  a  wavy  outlined  pink 
space,  dotted  with  red  and  black,  being  the  desert."  ^ 

The  tomb  of  Khnem-Hetep  II.  is  in  the  northern  group 
of  tombs.  Remains  of  a  dromos  or  avenue  leading  to  the 
portico  can  still  be  traced.  The  principal  chamber  or 
shrine  contains  a  large  figure  of  the  deceased,  who  was  one 
of  the  feudal  lords  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty.  This  tomb  is  usually  known  as  No.  1,  for  all 
the  tombs  here  are  numbered.  In  this  shrine  is  a  curious 
kind  of  dado,  painted  to  represent  rose-granite,  and  the 
scheme  of  colour  of  the  ceiling  consists  of  red  and  yellow 
squares,  with  black  and  blue  quatrefoils.  This  sepulchre 
is  best  known  for  the  painting,  which  is  supposed,  but  on 
doubtful  authority,  to  represent  Joseph,  and  his  brethren 
arriving  in  Egypt  to  buy  corn.  At  all  events,  it  represents 
the  arrival  in  Egypt  of  a  band  of  foreigners,  thirty  in  num- 
ber, who,  from  the  features,  seem  to  belong  to  the  Semitic 
race.  Heading  the  procession,  and  apparently  acting  as 
the  introducer  or  conductor,  is  the  Egyptian  royal  scribe, 
Nefer-hetep,  and  the  main  procession  consists  of  the  Aamn 
chief,  Abesha,  "  the  prince  of  the  foreign  country,"  and  his 
fellow  countrymen.  They  wear  beards,  and  carry  bows  and 
arrows.  Some  have  supposed  that  the  Aman  were  shep- 
herds or  hyksos. 

Equally  interesting  is  the  tomb  of  Ameni,  of  which  the 
general  structural  arrangement  is  similar  to  that  of  the 
former  tomb.  Ameni,  or  Amen-Em-Hat,  as  he  is  some- 
times called,  was  a  high  functionary  of  the  court  of  Usert- 
sen  I.,  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  One  painting  in  the  picture 
gallery  of  this  tomb  describes  pictorially  his  expedition 
into  Ethiopia,  and  his  triumphant  return,  laden  with  spoil 
and  trophies.     In  the  inscription  on  the  wall,  couched  in 

1  Murray's  "  Handbook  for  Egypt." 


THE   NILE    FROM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  267 

the  usual  vainglorious  tone  which  was  customary  at  that 
time,  he  sums  up  his  achievements  in  peace  and  war,  as 
follows : 

"  I  have  done  all  that  I  have  said.  I  am  a  gracious  and  a  com- 
passionate man,  and  a  ruler  who  loves  his  town.  I  have  passed  the 
course  of  years  as  the  ruler  of  Meh,  and  all  the  labours  of  the  palace 
have  been  carried  out  by  my  hands.  I  have  given  to  the  overseers  of 
the  temples  of  the  gods  of  Meh  three  thousand  bulls  with  their  cows, 
and  no  contribution  to  the  king's  storehouses  have  been  greater 
than  mine.  I  have  never  made  a  child  grieve ;  I  have  never  robbed 
the  widow ;  I  have  never  repulsed  the  labourer ;  I  have  never  shut  up 
a  herdsman ;  I  have  never  impressed  for  forced  labour  the  labourer  of 
a  man  who  only  employed  five  men.  There  was  never  a  person  mis- 
erable in  my  time ;  no  one  went  hungry  during  my  rule,  for  if  there 
were  years  of  scarcity  I  ploughed  up  all  the  arable  land  in  the  noma 
of  Meh,  up  to  its  very  frontiers  on  the  north  and  south.  By  this 
means  I  made  its  people  live,  and  procured  for  them  provision,  so 
that  there  was  not  a  hungry  person  among  them.  And,  behold, 
when  the  inundation  was  great,  and  the  owners  of  the  land  became 
rich  thereby,  I  laid  no  additional  tax  upon  the  fields." 

In  addition  to  the  tombs  there  is  a  kind  of  rock-temple 
dedicated  to  the  lion-headed  goddess  Sechet  or  Pasht, 
called  Artemis  (Diana)  by  the  Greeks,  which  is  known 
as  the  Speos  Artemidos  (the  cave  of  Artemis).  It  is 
excavated  in  a  rock  at  the  entrance  of  a  gorge  about  ten 
miles  from  the  tombs.  The  place  is  known  by  the  guides 
as  Stabl  Antar.  This  shrine,  or  temple,  was  begun  by 
Thotmes  III.  and  the  famous  Queen  Hatasu,  and  was 
embellished  with  a  few  sculptures  by  Seti  I.,  but  was  never 
completed.  The  only  finished  reliefs  are  on  the  inner 
wall  of  the  portico ;  and  as  they  are  of  a  good  period  of 
Egyptian  art,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  other  sculptures 
are  in  an  unfinished  state.  In  the  plain  to  the  south,  not 
far  from  this  valley,  the  vast  cemetery  of  cats  was  dis- 
covered, in  1887.  These  mummified  relics  were  found 
to  possess  fertilising  properties,  and  were  transported  to 
Europe  by  the  ton  for  manure. 


268  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Between  Beni-Hassan  and  the  Theban  plain,  ruins  of 
temples  and  tombs,  Roman  forts,  eyrie-like  convents,  grot- 
toes, etc.,  abound,  and  the  Nile  voyager  is  rarely  out  of 
sight  of  some  ancient  monument.  To  visit  all  would, 
however,  require  the  antiquarian  zeal  of  a  Flinders-Petrie 
or  a  Mariette ;  and  even  a  mere  digest  of  all  the  antiqui- 
ties in  the  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  Nile  Valley, 
through  which  the  traveller  bound  for  Luxor,  the  great 
goal  of  all  Nile  voyages,  passes,  would  require  several 
volumes. 

Some  twenty  miles  beyond  Beni-Hassan  are  the  recently 
discovered  rock-tombs  of  Tel-El-Amarna,  hardly  inferior 
in  interest  to  the  more  famous  ones  we  have  just  described. 
They  were  unearthed  and  scientifically  examined  by  Prof. 
Flinders-Petrie,  during  excavations  undertaken  in  1892. 
This  excursion  is  especially  attractive  to  artists  on  account 
of  the  exquisite  design  and  colouring  in  the  painted  pave- 
ments,—  the  relics  of  the  palace  of  Khu-en-Aten  (1400 
B.  c),  about  two  miles  from  the  tombs.  One  floor  is  in  an 
excellent  state  of  preservation,  and  the  colours  are  remark- 
ably fresh.  A  new  artistic  influence  is  seen  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  figures  represented  in  this  beautiful  series  of 
frescoes ;  and  animals,  birds,  insect  life,  plants,  etc.,  are 
drawn  with  a  remarkable  fidelity  to  nature,  offering  a 
strong  contrast  to  the  stiff  and  conventional  treatment  in 
other  animal  paintings  of  the  Middle  Empire.  This  new 
art  was  introduced  by  the  highly  cultured  King  Khu-en- 
Aten,  who  seems  to  have  introduced  reform  in  art  along 
with  reform  in  religion,  for  Khu-en-Aten  had  calmly 
adopted  the  cult  of  Amen,  the  God  of  Thebes,  to  that  of 
Aten,  an  Asiatic  deity  symbolised  by  the  solar  disk. 

Near  this  palace  was  discovered,  in  1887,  the  Record 
Office,  as  it  may  be  called,  of  this  enlightened  monarch. 
A  large  number  of  bricks  were  found  with  the  inscription, 
"The  House  of  the  Rolls,"  which  clearly  showed  the  ob- 


THE   NILE    FROM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  269 

ject  of  the  building.  Here  Professor  Petrie  came  across  a 
valuable  find  of  the  greatest  importance  to  historians  and 
archaeologists.  It  consisted  of  several  hundred  clay  tablets 
inscribed  with  cuneiform  characters,  comprising  despatches 
to  the  king  from  his  brother  sovereigns  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria.  "  The  tablets  cast  a  vivid  and  unexpected  light 
on  Egypt  and  Western  Asia  in  the  fifteenth  century  before 
Christ,  and  show  that  Babylonian  was  at  that  time  the 
language  of  education  and  diplomacy.  They  also  show 
that  education  must  have  been  widely  extended  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  Nile,  and  that  schools  must  have  existed 
for  teaching  the  foreign  language  and  script.  Canaan  was 
governed  at  the  time  by  the  Egyptians,  much  as  India  is 
governed  to-day  by  the  English ;  but  the  officials  and  cour- 
tiers of  the  Pharaoh  were  for  the  most  part  Asiatics,  the 
larger  number  being  Canaanites." 

Soon  after  passing  the  village  of  Beni-Hassan  we  come 
to  one  of  the  most  picturesque  series  of  reaches  in  the 
whole  Nile  voyage,  and  here  the  beautiful  dom-palm  is 
first  seen.  A  few  miles  beyond  Tel-El- Amarna  the  mag- 
nificent precipices  of  Gebel  Abu  Faydah  are  a  striking 
feature  of  the  scenery.  They  extend,  a  precipitous  ram- 
part, along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile  for  nearly  a 
dozen  miles,  and  to  American  visitors  will,  perhaps,  recall 
memories  of  the  famous  Palisades  on  the  Hudson.  Half 
concealed  in  the  topmost  clefts  and  fissures  of  these  stu- 
pendous precipices  may  be  seen  the  caves  where  dwelt  the 
celebrated  monks  and  ascetics  of  Upper  Egypt;  and  in 
one  of  these  caverns,  according  to  a  monastic  tradition, 
Athanasius  sought  shelter  for  a  time. 

Innumerable  tombs,  as  yet  not  systematically  explored, 
and  rarely  visited  by  tourists,  line  the  terraces  of  these 
cliffs.  At  the  top  is  the  famous  cemetery  of  mummified 
crocodiles.  These  pits  and  caverns  which  comprise  this 
saurian  necropolis  are  not  well  known  even  to  the  local 


270  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

guides,  and  to  visit  them  alone  would  be  exceedingly  haz- 
ardous. Within  recent  years  a  party  of  tourists  lost  their 
lives  in  exploring  the  suffocating  labyrinth,  and,  if  the 
guides  are  to  be  believed,  their  bodies  were  never  re- 
covered. 

Abydos  lies  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  some  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Cairo,  and  was  thought  by 
many  Egyptologists  to  occupy  the  site  of  This,  the  earliest 
historical  city  of  Egypt,  and  the  home  of  Menes,  the  first 
king  of  the  first  dynasty ;  but  the  systematic  excavations 
of  Mariette  scarcely  support  this  view.  It  was,  however, 
one  of  the  most  renowned  cities  in  ancient  Egypt,  attain- 
ing its  greatest  splendour  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
dynasties,  and  ranked  second  to  Thebes  as  a  centre  of 
learning  and  religious  thought. 

The  temples  are,  of  course,  the  chief  curiosities  here; 
but  to  scholars  and  antiquarians  the  necropolis  is  of  the 
greatest  importance,  as  here  can  be  seen  specimens  of  the 
three  types  of  tombs  which  were  used  at  various  periods 
by  the  Egyptians.  The  earlier  tombs  belong  to  the  sixth 
dynasty,  and  are  of  the  mastaba  class.  Those  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  dynasties  are  in  the  forms  of  small, 
brick  pyramids,  while  those  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  show 
a  revival  of  the  early  rectangular  sepulchre. 

It  is  curious  that  the  usual  practice  of  burying  the  dead 
in  grottoes  or  caves  excavated  in  the  sides  of  cliffs  or  in- 
land hills  was  not  followed  at  Abydos.  Instead  of  choos- 
ing the  limestone  hills,  which  lay  ready  to  hand,  the  citizens 
of  Abydos  preferred  for  sepulchral  purposes  the  sandy 
plains  interspersed  with  rocks. 

The  principal  monuments  here  are  the  temples  of  Rameses 
the  Great  and  Seti.  The  former  is  said  to  be  dedicated  to 
Osiris,  the  tutelary  deity  of  Abydos,  whose  head  was  sup- 
posed to  be  buried  here.  In  fact,  one  of  the  chief  titles  of 
this  god  is  "  Lord  of  Abydos,"  as  may  be  seen  in  the  fa- 


THE    NILE    FROM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  271 

mous  funerary  tablet  (now  in  the  Haworth  collection)  of  the 
Theban  priest  Napu,  who  lived  nearly  twenty-five  centuries 
ago.  Some  doubt  has,  however,  been  thrown  by  the  newer 
school  of  Egyptologists  on  the  claim  put  forward  for  this 
temple  as  the  original  sanctuary  of  Osiris,  since  the  failure 
of  Mariette,  in  the  course  of  his  researches  in  1864,  to  find 
any  trace  of  the  shrine  of  this  god.  "During  the  French 
occupation  of  Egypt,"  writes  Dr.  Wallis-Budge,  "in  the 
early  part  of  this  century,  this  temple  stood  almost  intact ; 
since  that  time,  however,  so  much  damage  has  been 
wrought  upon  it,  that  the  portions  of  wall  which  now 
remain  are  only  about  eight  or  nine  feet  high."  It  was 
here  that  a  fragment  of  the  famous  Tablet  of  Abydos,  a 
duplicate  of  the  one  still  in  situ  on  the  wall  of  the  adjacent 
temple  of  Seti,  was  discovered  by  Mariette,  in  1864.  It  is 
now  in  the  British  Museum.  The  tablet  is  of  the  greatest 
historical  importance,  as  it  gives  the  names  of  seventy-five 
kings,  beginning  with  Menes  and  ending  with  Seti  I.  It  is 
not,  however,  a  complete  list,  and  gaps  have  to  be  supplied 
from  the  Tablet  of  Karnak,  now  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Louvre. 

The  temple  of  Seti,  often  called  the  Memnonium,  is  the 
Palace  of  Memnon  described  in  some  detail  by  Strabo,  who 
states  that  it  was  constructed  in  a  singular  manner,  entirely 
of  stone,  and  after  the  plan  of  the  Labyrinth.  The  greater 
portion  of  the  temple  was  built  by  Seti,  but  his  son,  Rameses 
II.,  is  responsible  for  most  of  the  relief  and  other  mural  dec- 
orations. Here  we  find  another  copy  of  the  famous  poem  of 
Pentaur.  This  is  the  well-known  illustrated  historical  epic 
of  the  Khita  campaign  of  Rameses  11.  It  is  familiar  to  all 
Nile  travellers,  as  the  numerous  episodes  of  this  war, 
quaint  pictures  in  bas-relief,  confront  the  visitor,  not  only  at 
Abydos,  but  at  Abou  Simbel,  Luxor,  Karnak,  and  Thebes. 
This  poem,  so  evidently  written  to  order  by  the  poet 
laureate  of  the  time,  is  published,  as  Miss  Edwards  forcibly 


272         THE  CITY  OF  THE  CALIPHS. 

puts  it,  in  a  truly  regal  manner,  in  an  edition  (necessarily 
limited)  issued  on  stone,  illustrated  with  bas-reliefs,  while, 
to  continue  the  metaphor,  the  temple  walls  form  an  im- 
perial binding  to  this  sumptuous  epic. 

The  temple  of  Seti  is  unique  as  being  the  only  ancient 
Egyptian  roofed  temple  yet  remaining,  for  of  course  the 
Denderah,  Edfu,  and  other  temples  of  the  Ptolemaic  era  are 
modern  in  comparison.  The  construction  of  this  roof  was 
peculiar.  Huge  blocks,  extending  from  the  architraves  on 
each  side  of  the  temple,  were  placed  on  their  sides,  not  on 
their  faces.  Through  this  mass  of  stone  an  arch  was  cut 
which  was  decorated  with  hieroglyphics  and  sculptures. 

There  are  three  places  in  the  Upper  Nile  Valley  where 
the  architecture  of  the  Ptolemaic  age  can  be  studied, — 
Denderah,  Philae,  and  Edfu,  where  the  finest  monuments 
of  the  Ptolemies  replace  the  ordinary  architectural  relics  of 
the  Pharaohs. 

Denderah  lies  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  only  three 
or  four  miles  from  Keneh,  so  that  it  is  very  easy  of  access. 
The  present  temple  is  evidently  built  on  the  ruins  of  a  tem- 
ple dedicated  to  the  goddess  Hathor,  the  Greek  Aphrodite, 
which,  according  to  the  results  of  Mariette's  discoveries, 
was  founded  by  Cheops.  This  temple,  however,  never  held 
very  high  rank  among  the  fanes  of  the  Ancient  Empire, 
perhaps  owing  to  its  proximity  to  the  famous  shrines  of 
Abydos  and  Thebes.  The  wonderfully  preserved  building 
which  we  see  is  the  work  of  the  later  Ptolemies,  while  it 
was  completed  as  recently  as  the  first  century. 

Egyptian  sculpture  had  long  been  on  the  decline  before 
the  erection  of  the  present  temple  of  Denderah;  and  the 
Egyptian  antiquary  looks  with  little  satisfaction  on  the 
graceless  style  of  the  figures  and  the  crowded  profusion  of 
ill-adjusted  hieroglyphs  that  cover  the  walls  of  this  as 
of  other  Ptolemaic  or  Roman  monuments.  But  the  archi- 
tecture still  retained  the  grandeur  of  an  earlier  period,  and 


THE    NILE    FROM    CAIRO    TO    THEBES.  273 

though  the  capitals  were  frequently  overcharged  with 
ornament,  the  general  effect  of  the  porticoes  erected  under 
the  Ptolemies  and  Caesars  is  grand  and  imposing,  and  fre- 
quently not  destitute  of  elegance  and  taste. 

These  remarks  apply  very  particularly  to  the  temple  of 
Denderah;  and  from  its  superior  state  of  preservation  it 
deserves  a  distinguished  rank  among  the  most  interesting 
monuments  of  Egypt.  For  though  its  columns,  considered 
singly,  may  be  said  to  have  a  heavy,  perhaps  a  barbarous 
appearance,  the  portico  is  doubtless  a  noble  specimen  of 
architecture;  nor  is  the  succeeding  hall  devoid  of  beauty 
and  symmetry  of  proportion.  The  preservation  of  the  roof 
also  adds  greatly  to  the  beauty  as  well  as  to  the  interest  of 
the  portico  ;  for  many  of  those  in  the  Egyptian  temples 
lose  their  effect  by  being  destitute  of  roofs.  Generally 
speaking,  Egyptian  temples  are  more  picturesque  when  in 
ruins  than  when  entire;  being,  if  seen  from  without, 
merely  a  large,  dead  wall,  scarcely  relieved  by  a  slight 
increase  in  the  height  of  the  portico.  But  this  cannot 
be  said  of  the  portico  itself ;  nor  did  a  temple  present  the 
same  monotonous  appearance  when  the  painted  sculptures 
were  in  their  original  state  ;  and  it  was  the  necessity  of  re- 
lieving the  large  expanse  of  flat  wall  which  led  to  this  rich 
mode  of  decoration. 

The  temple  of  Denderah  is  probably  best  remembered 
on  account  of  the  famous  portraits  in  relief  of  Cleopatra 
and  her  son  Caesarion  on  the  exterior  of  the  end  wall. 
The  queen  is  conventionally  drawn  as  an  Egyptian  type, 
according  to  the  canons  of  Egyptian  portraiture  which  had 
determined  the  portraits  of  gods  and  kings  for  over  fifteen 
hundred  years.  For  some  reason  Cleopatra's  portrait  has 
been  accepted  by  modern  writers  as  an  excellent  likeness  of 
the  "  serpent  of  old  Nile ;"  yet,  as  Professor  Mahaffy  observes 
in  his  "  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies,"  it  is  no  more  a  likeness 
than  the  well-known  granite  statues  in  the  Vatican  are  true 


274  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

portraits  of  Philadelphus  and  Arsinoe.  The  artist,  in  fact, 
had  probably  never  seen  the  queen.  "  This  Egyptian  por- 
trait is  likely  to  confirm  in  the  spectator's  mind  the 
impression  derived  from  Shakespeare's  play,  that  Cleopatra 
was  a  swarthy  Egyptian,  in  strong  contrast  to  the  fair 
Roman  ladies^  and  suggesting  a  wide  difference  of  race. 
She  was  no  more  an  Egyptian  than  she  was  an  Indian,  but 
a  pure  Macedonian,  of  a  race  akin  to,  and  perhaps  fairer 
than,  the  Greeks. 

Another  object  of  peculiar  interest  in  this  temple  is  the 
famous  zodiac  painted  on  the  ceiling  of  the  portico,  which 
was  erroneously  supposed  by  Egyptologists  of  the  last  gen- 
eration to  be  a  relic  of  the  Pharaonic  ages.  Mariette's 
researches  have,  however,  established  the  fact  that,  like  its 
fellow  in  the  temple  of  Ezra,  this  zodiac  must  be  attributed 
to  the  Roman  period.  Another  zodiac  was,  till  1821,  to  be 
seen  in  the  curious  little  upper  chapel,  or  subsidiary  temple, 
dedicated  to  Osiris,  the  tutelary  deity  of  Denderah.  This 
is  usually  known  to  the  local  guides  as  "  The  Temple  of 
the  Roof."  Owing  to  the  disgraceful  vandalism  so  prev- 
alent in  the  time  of  Mehemet  Ali,  who,  although  an 
enlightened  monarch  in  many  respects,  does  not  seem 
to  have  possessed  the  slightest  appreciation  of  Egyptian 
antiquities  (of  which  he  should  have  been  the  national 
guardian),  the  zodiac  was  actually  cut  out  bodily  from  its 
wall,  and  presented  to  France,  where  it  may  be  seen  in 
the  Louvre  Museum.  One  is  bound  to  admit,  however,  that 
the  recollection  of  that  shameful  spoliation  of  the  friezes 
of  the  Parthenon,  by  Lord  Elgin,  makes  this  natural  indig- 
nation on  the  part  of  English  visitors  rather  inconsistent. 
The  only  palliation  in  the  case  of  the  Elgin  marbles  was 
that  there  was  some  risk  of  their  being  spoilt  by  wind  and 
weather  if  they  remained  in  situ.  In  Egypt,  however,  this 
excuse  cannot  be  urged.  The  preservative  effects  of  the 
dry  and  rainless  climate  of  the  Upper  Nile  are  well  known. 


THE   NILE    FKOM    CAIEO    TO    THEBES.  275 

The  structural  arrangement  of  the  Denderah  temple,  or 
rather  congeries  of  temples,  is  very  interesting.  Though 
this  monument  is  for  the  most  part  the  work  of  Greek 
and  Roman  architects,  the  main  features  of  the  Pharaonic 
temple  have  been  retained.  Owing  to  its  well-preserved 
condition,  this  temple,  albeit  modernised,  will,  perhaps,  give 
the  spectator  a  better  idea  of  what  the  ancient  Egyptian 
temples  were  in  their  pristine  splendour  than  even  the  mag- 
nificent ruins  of  the  roofless  temples  at  Karnak  or  Luxor. 

Owing  to  the  continuous  work  of  excavation  recently 
undertaken  for  several  seasons  by  Mariette,  this  beautiful 
temple  is  now  completely  accessible,  even  to  the  last  of 
its  numerous  chambers.  It  is  difficult  to  speak  too  highly 
of  the  energy  and  enterprise  which,  by  clearing  away  the 
accumulated  rubbish  of  centuries,  —  for  a  whole  village  of 
mud-huts  had  actually  sprung  up  on  the  roof,  —  has  ef- 
fected this. 

One  finds  here  the  usual  features  of  all  Egyptian  tem- 
ples,—  the  crude  brick  wall  enclosure,  dromos,  pylons,  por- 
ticoes, regular  series  of  halls  corresponding  to  the  nave, 
chancel,  and  choir  of  Christian  cathedrals,  etc.  In  some  of 
the  columns  and  internal  decorations  the  influence  of  Greek 
art  is,  however,  clearly  traceable,  and  the  same  thing  strikes 
the  eye  at  once  in  some  of  the  ancient  temples  of  India. 

We  enter  through  a  magnificent  portico,  or  vestibule, 
supported  by  twenty-four  columns.  This  leads  into  an- 
other hall,  called  the  "  Hall  of  the  Appearance,"  and  then 
we  reach  the  "  Sanctuary  of  the  Golden  Hathor."  Around 
the  great  temple  are  several  subsidiary  shrines,  of  which 
the  most  interesting  is  the  temple  dedicated  to  Isis.  It 
is  here  that  the  sacred  cow  is  sculptured,  and,  according 
to  Murray's  Handbook,  the  Sepoys,  who  formed  part  of 
the  English  army  of  occupation  in  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  prostrated  themselves  before  the  figure  of  this 
sacred  animal. 


276  THE    CITY   OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

Edfu,  which  is  only  seventy  miles  north  of  the  First 
Cataract,  ought  strictly  to  be  left  for  the  chapter  on  As- 
souan, as  our  order  is  mainly  topographical.  It  is,  how- 
ever, best  to  include  in  one  chapter  a  survey  of  the  famous 
triad  of  Ptolemaic  temples,  —  Denderah,  Esneh,  and  Edfu, 
—  all  of  which  have  much  in  common.  The  temples  of 
the  Ptolemies  have,  perhaps,  gained  a  fictitious  importance 
in  the  minds  of  tourists  owing  to  their  strikingly  pictur- 
esque background,  but  architecturally  they  are  inferior, 
and  can  more  conveniently  be  described  separately. 

It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  credit  for  these 
magnificent  architectural  achievements  has  been  allowed  to 
the  Ptolemies  by  modern  historians.  Owing  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  ancient  Egyptian  religious  symbols  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  these  Greek  temples,  and  the  grafting  of  the 
Egyptian  faith  by  fusing  their  gods  with  those  in  the 
Greek  mythology,  —  Serapis  is  a  well-known  instance, — 
modern  scholars  have  long  been  at  fault  as  to  the  origin 
of  these  temples,  which  were  usually  attributed  to  the 
Pharaohs;  and  it  was  imagined  that  the  Ptolemaic  sov- 
ereigns had  left  no  permanent  mark  in  Egypt.  Letronne 
was  the  first  to  convince  Egyptologists  of  their  error,  by 
showing  that  the  Greek  inscription  agreed  with  those  in 
hieroglyphics. 

The  Temple  of  Edfu  was  not,  indeed,  the  work  of  any 
one  sovereign.  It  took  over  one  hundred  and  eighty  years 
in  building ;  and  every  Ptolemy,  from  its  founder  Ptolemy 
III.,  down  to  Ptolemy  XIII.  (Auletes),  who  completed  it, 
seems  to  have  had  a  hand  in  restoring  or  enlarging  this 
splendid  temple. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

"THE   CITY   OP   A   HUNDRED   GATES." 
"  A  rose-red  city  —  half  as  old  as  time." 

THE  spot  on  which  ancient  Thebes  stood  is  so  admir- 
ably adapted  for  the  site  of  a  great  city,  that  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  the  Egyptians  to  overlook  it.  The 
mountains  on  the  east  and  west  side  of  the  river  sweep 
away  from  it,  and  leave  a  broad  plain  on  each  bank  of 
several  square  miles  in  extent.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  modern  Paris  would  scarcely  cover  the  vast  area  of 
ancient  Thebes. 

Luxor  itself  lies  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Nile,  some  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Cairo,  in  the  midst  of  this 
verdant  and  fertile  plain.  It  is  a  considerable  village, — 
in  fact,  a  modest  town,  —  and  its  inhabitants  (some  two 
thousand  in  number)  apparently  divide  their  time  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  the  exploitation  of  the  tourist,  and  the 
manufacture  of  spurious  antiquities. 

The  first  view  from  the  dahabiyeh  or  Nile  steamer  of 
the  smiling  expanse  of  verdant  plain  —  so  different  from 
the  tourist's  preconceived  idea  of  desert  landscape  —  upon 
which  are  Karnak,  Luxor,  and  the  other  scattered  villages 
which  lie  on  the  site  of  ancient  Thebes,  whose  ruins  show 
it  to  have  been  one  of  the  largest  cities  in  the  world,  is 
singularly  impressive  from  the  striking  contrast.  At  once 
one  realises  the  felicitousness  of  Homer's  epithet,  — 

"  Not  all  proud  Thebes'  unrivalled  walls  contain, 
The  world's  great  Empress  on  the  Egyptian  plain 

277 


278  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

That  spreads  her  conquests  o'er  a  thousand  states, 
And  pours  her  heroes  through  a  hundred  gates, 
Two  hundred  horsemen,  and  two  hundred  cars, 
From  each  wide  portal  issuing  to  the  wars." 

The  stupendous  masses  of  masonry,  the  propylons  and 
pylons  of  the  ancient  temples,  —  hecatompylouB^  no  doubt, 
refer  to  these  gateways,  and  not  to  those  of  the  city,  which 
was  never  walled,  —  are  seen  towering  above  the  palms. 
The  valley  is  surrounded  by  a  ridge  of  hills,  broken  into 
cone-shaped  peaks  nearly  two  thousand  feet  high.  In 
January  the  plain  is  already  verdant  with  barley,  with 
flowering  lentils  and  vetches,  and  interspersed  with  patches 
of  golden  sugar-cane. 

Most  of  the  Theban  ruins  are  on  the  west  branch  of  the 
Nile ;  but  the  grandest  monument  of  all,  the  Great  Temple 
of  Karnak,  the  largest  and  most  magnificent  architectural 
ruin  in  the  whole  world,  is  on  the  east  bank,  about  one  and 
a  half  miles  from  Luxor.  Its  enormous  size  and  Titanic 
proportions  are  the  predominant  impressions  on  the  part  of 
the  tourist,  and  its  architectural  and  artistic  beauties  are  at 
first  lost  sight  of  in  a  bewildering  sense  of  bulk  and  immen- 
sity. That  the  visitor  should  be  almost  stupefied  by  the 
vastness  of  scale  is  scarcely  surprising,  when  we  consider 
that  four  Notre  Dame  Cathedrals  could  be  built  within  the 
area  included  by  the  outer  walls  of  this  temple,  and  that 
the  propylon  (entrance  gateway)  equals  in  breadth  alone 
the  length  of  the  nave  of  many  English  cathedrals,  and  in 
height  equals  that  of  the  nave  of  Milan  Cathedral.  Ten 
men  would  be  required  to  span  the  colossal  pillars  in  the 
great  hall ;  yet  there  is  no  suggestion  of  unwieldiness  in 
their  cyclopean  proportions,  and  the  beautiful  calyx-capitals 
"open  out  against  the  blue  sky  as  lightly  as  the  finest 
stone  tracery  above  an  English  cathedral  nave." 

Thebes  appears  to  have  been  for  over  two  thousand 
years  not  only  the  capital  of  Egypt  and  the  seat  of  govern- 


"the  city  of  a  hundred  gates."        279 

ment,  but  also  her  ecclesiastical  metropolis,  a  kind  of  Egyp- 
tian Rome  or  Canterbury.  Almost  every  sovereign,  from 
Usertsen  I.  (b.  c.  2433)  to  the  Ptolemies,  seems  to  have 
regarded  the  embellishment  of  this  famous  shrine,  or  the 
addition  of  subsidiary  temples,  as  a  sacred  duty.  A  glance 
at  Mariette's  plans  of  the  original  building,  and  that  of 
the  temple,  or  rather  group  of  temples,  in  the  time  of 
the  Ptolemies,  shows  very  clearly  the  gradual  development 
of  the  building.  To  those  who  take  an  interest  in  archi- 
tecture, the  mingling  of  the  various  styles  during  this  long 
period  is  very  instructive. 

"  For  splendour  and  magnitude,  the  group  of  temples  at  Karnak 
forms  the  most  magnificent  ruin  in  the  world.  The  temple  area  is 
surrounded  by  a  wall  of  crude  brick,  in  some  places  still  50  feet  in 
height,  along  the  top  of  which  you  may  ride  for  half  an  hour. 
The  great  hall  of  the  Great  Temple  measures  170  feet  by  329  feet, 
and  the  roof,  single  stones  of  which  weigh  100  tons,  is  supported  by 
134  massive  columns,  60  feet  in  height.  The  forest  of  columns 
stands  so  thick  that  from  no  one  spot  is  it  possible  to  see  the  whole 
area  of  this  stupendous  hall ;  and  weeks  may  easily  be  spent  in  fol- 
lowing the  detail  of  the  pictures  with  which  the  walls  are  covered, 
—  battles,  sieges,  sea-fights,  processions  of  captives,  offerings  to  the 
gods,  massacres  of  prisoners,  embassies  from  foreign  lands  bearing 
gifts  and  tribute,  voyages  of  exploration  and  their  results ;  the  whole 
history  of  Egypt  during  the  most  splendid  period  of  her  greatness  is 
recorded  on  the  walls  and  pylons  of  the  Theban  temples."  ^ 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  Great  Temple  is 
the  splendid  obelisk  in  front  of  the  fourth  pylon,  erected 
by  Queen  Hatasu,  who  may  almost  rank  with  Rameses  the 
Great  as  one  of  the  most  famous  royal  builders  of  Egypt. 
This  magnificent  column  stands  preeminent  as  the  loftiest, 
best  proportioned,  and  most  elaborately  engraved  of  any 
obelisk  in  existence.  It  is  one  hundred  and  nine  feet  high 
in  the  shaft,  and  is  cut  from  a  single  flawless  block  of  red 
granite. 

1  Isaac  Taylor. 


280  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  dates  in  the  inscription  engraved  on  the  plinth 
show  that  this  magnificent  monolith  was  dug  out  from  the 
granite  quarries  of  Assouan,  conveyed  to  Thebes,  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles  distant,  dressed  and  engraved,  and 
erected  in  its  present  position  within  seven  months.  The 
only  erect  obelisk  which  at  all  approaches  Queen  Hatasu's 
monolith  in  size  is  the  one  which  stands  in  front  of  the 
Church  of  St.  John  Lateran,  the  mother-church  of  Rome, 
which  was  brought  from  Egypt  in  the  reign  of  Constantine 
the  Great.  The  famous  twin  "  Needles  of  Cleopatra,"  now 
in  the  Central  Park,  New  York,  and  on  the  Thames  Em- 
bankment, are  pigmies  in  comparison. 

Though  the  Luxor  Temple  is  of  inferior  interest,  and 
in  the  matter  of  dimensions  alone  the  stupendous  fane 
of  Karnak  bears  the  same  relation  to  it  that  a  European 
cathedral  does  to  one  of  its  side-chapels,  yet  anywhere  but 
here  it  would  command  respectful  attention  from  the  trav- 
eller. So  great  is  the  wealth  of  antiquities  which  strew 
the  site  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  capital  that  visitors  there 
are,  indeed,  spoilt  for  all  other  ruins  which  are  not  of 
surpassing  interest.  As  the  Luxor  Temple  lies  at  the 
threshold  of  the  hotels,  it  can  be  visited  frequently  by  the 
conscientious  sight-seer  without  much  loss  of  time.  To 
avoid  the  feeling  of  an  anti-climax  it  is  advisable  that  the 
first  visit  to  this  temple  should  be  made  before  that  to  the 
Great  Temple  of  Karnak.  Its  most  noteworthy  feature  is 
a  fine  obelisk  of  red  granite,  covered  with  admirably  carved 
hieroglyphics.  Its  fellow  is  familiar  to  most  visitors,  per- 
haps without  knowing  it,  inasmuch  as  it  adorns  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde,  Paris. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  history  of  the  Egyptian 
obelisks.  Fifty-five,  without  reckoning  the  uncompleted 
ones  at  Assouan,  are  recorded  in  history.  Twenty-seven  of 
these  historic  monoliths  were  quarried  at  Assouan.  A 
larger  number  than  is  usually  supposed  have  been  trans- 


"the  city  of  a  hundked  gates."        281 

ported  to  Europe,  the  trophies  for  the  most  part  of  Greek 
and  Roman  emperors,  and  are  scattered  among  the  great 
Continental  capitals.  Nearly  a  dozen  are  in  Rome,  one  is 
in  Constantinople,  another  towers  over  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde in  Paris,  while  the  most  famous  of  all  in  popular 
estimation,  the  twin  "  Needles  of  Cleopatra,"  have  found  a 
home,  as  every  schoolboy  knows,  in  New  York  and  London 
respectively. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  many  modern  writers  on  these 
characteristic  monuments  of  Egypt  —  for  a  whole  litera- 
ture has  grown  up  round  these  monolithic  columns  —  have 
inveighed  against  the  vandalism  of  the  Romans  in  strip- 
ping Egypt  of  these  memorials  of  her  former  greatness. 
From  English  and  American  authors,  however,  this  scarcely 
comes  with  a  good  grace,  considering  the  eagerness  dis- 
played in  appropriating  Cleopatra's  famous  obelisks.  This, 
however,  is  but  a  venial  error  of  taste  compared  with  the 
exhibition  of  the  mummified  remains  of  the  Pharaohs  in 
the  Ghizeh  Museum. 

Many  are  the  theories  ventilated  by  antiquarians  to 
account  for  the  characteristic  shape  of  the  obelisk.  That 
it  was  symbolical  is  now  generally  admitted.  According 
to  some  authorities,  its  peculiar  form  symbolises  the  rays 
of  the  sun,  while  some  anthropologists  are  inclined  to  attrib- 
ute a  deeper  and  less  obvious  origin,  and  consider  that, 
like  the  pyramids,  obelisks  are  intended  as  an  emblem  of 
the  vital  principle  for  esoteric  reasons,  which  need  not  be 
discussed  in  a  non-technical  work. 

The  temples  of  Luxor  and  Karnak,  however,  comprise 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  ruins  which  have  made  Thebes 
one  of  the  most  frequented  shrines  of  tourist  culture  in 
Egypt.  On  the  other  bank  of  the  Nile  are  the  Ramasseum, 
the  temples  of  Rameses  II.  and  III.,  the  Vocal  Memnon, 
the  rock-tombs  of  the  kings,  —  the  most  impressive  in 
point  of  situation  of   any  collection  of  mausolea  in  the 


282  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

world,  —  and  other  ruins  concerning  which  innumerable 
guide-books  and  Egyptian  works  of  travels  are  eloquent. 

The  whole  of  ancient  Thebes  is,  indeed,  one  vast  buried 
museum  of  antiquities.  In  short,  the  saying  that  in  the 
Nile  Valley  you  have  only  to  scratch  the  surface  to  come 
upon  a  crop  of  antiquities  applies  with  especial  force  to  the 
City  of  the  Hundred  Gates.  Though  the  directors  of  the 
Ghizeh  Museum  have  been  particularly  active  in  this  region 
of  late  years,  and  have  made  considerable  progress  in  the 
work  of  excavation,  a  great  portion  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Dead,  in  Western  Thebes,  is  virgin  soil.  The  tombs  and 
monuments  that  have  been  discovered,  however,  in  this 
vast  necropolis,  would  not  be  exhausted  by  the  sight-seer 
under  several  weeks,  while,  as  for  the  students  of  Egyptol- 
ogy, a  stay  of  several  seasons,  instead  of  weeks,  might  be 
made  here  with  advantage. 

The  extraordinary  wealth  of  antiquities  in  the  Theban 
plain,  and  the  great  historic  and  antiquarian  value  of  Kar- 
nak  and  Thebes,  will  require  a  longer  chapter  than  usual, 
even  tor  a  superficial  notice  of  the  principal  monuments. 

For  the  practical  purpose  of  getting  some  idea  of  the 
confusing  topography  of  the  site  of  ancient  Thebes  and  its 
vast  cemetery,  as  well  as  for  the  aesthetic  enjoyment  of  an 
incomparable  view,  one  of  the  peaks  of  the  mountain  bar- 
rier which  keeps  guard  over  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings 
should  be  climbed.  Unique  is  the  prospect  of  the  smiling 
Theban  plain,  through  which  the  Nile  meanders  like  a  sil- 
ver thread,  bounded  by  the  Arabian  Mountains.  On  the 
right  are  Hataus's  Temple  of  Dar-El-Bahari  and  the  Temple 
of  Rameses  III.,  and  right  before  us  is  the  Memnonium ;  on 
the  left  are  the  Temple  and  Palace  of  Rameses  I.  Some 
distance  in  advance  of  these  stand,  like  videttes,  the  twin 
Colossi.  Then,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Nile,  Luxor  raises 
its  gigantic  columns  from  the  river's  edge,  and  gigantic 
propylons  mark  the  Karnak  temples. 


"  THE    CITY    OF   A   HUNDRED    GATES."  283 

The  remarkable  temple  generally  known  as  the  Rames- 
seum,  which  "  for  symmetry  of  architecture  and  elegance 
of  sculpture  can  vie  with  any  other  Egyptian  monument," 
is  really  the  cenotaph  or  mortuary  temple  (corresponding 
to  the  mastabas  of  Memphis)  of  Rameses  II.  In  the 
entrance  court  a  colossal  figure  of  Rameses  seated  on  a 
throne  used  to  confront  the  worshipper.  The  ruins  scat- 
tered round  the  pedestal  show  it  to  have  been  the  most 
gigantic  figure  —  to  which  the  Abou  Simbel  colossi  were  but 
statuettes  —  ever  carved  in  Egypt  from  a  single  block  of 
granite.  The  fact  that  the  granite  of  this  statue  would 
have  made  three  of  the  great  obelisks  of  Karnak  will  give 
some  idea  of  its  dimensions.  It  was  probably  destroyed  by 
the  Persians  under  Cambyses. 

«  By  some  extraordinary  catastrophe  this  statue  has  been  thrown 
down,  and  the  Arabs  have  scooped  their  millstones  out  of  his  face ; 
but  you  can  see  what  he  was,  —  the  largest  statue  in  the  world.  Far 
and  wide  his  enormous  head  must  have  been  seen,  —  eyes,  nose,  and 
ears.  Far  and  wide  you  must  have  seen  his  hands  resting  on  his 
elephantine  knees.  You  sit  on  his  breast  and  look  at  the  Osiride 
statues  which  support  the  portico  of  the  temple,  and  they  seem  pig- 
mies before  him.  Nothing  that  now  exists  in  the  world  can  give 
any  notion  of  what  the  effect  must  have  been  when  he  was  erect. 
.Nero,  towering  above  the  Colosseum,  may  have  been  something  like 
it ;  but  he  was  of  brass,  and  Rameses  of  solid  granite.  Rameses, 
also,  was  resting  in  awful  majesty  after  the  conquest  of  the  whole 
known  world."^ 

This  colossus  forms  the  subject  of  one  of  Shelley's 
sonnets : 

"  I  met  a  traveller  from  an  antique  land. 
Who  said :  <  Two  vast  and  trunkless  legs  of  stone 
Stand  in  the  desert.     Near  them,  on  the  sand. 
Half  sunk,  a  shattered  visage  lies,  whose  frown 
And  wi-inkled  lips  and  sneer  of  cold  command 
Tell  that  its  sculptor  well  those  passions  read 
Which  yet  survive,  stamped  on  these  lifeless  things 

lA.  P.  Stanley,  D.D. 


284  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  hand  that  mocked  and  the  heart  that  fed. 
And  on  the  pedestal  these  words  appear : 
*  My  name  is  Ozymandias,  king  of  kings ; 
Look  on  my  works,  ye  mighty,  and  despair.* 
Nothing  beside  remains.     Round  the  decay 
Of  that  colossal  wreck,  boundless  and  bare, 
The  lone  and  level  sands  stretch  far  away." 

The  proverbial  poetic  license  must,  of  course,  be  ac- 
corded to  Shelley's  description  of  the  "  lone  and  level 
sands,"  which  suggests  the  solemn  associations  of  the  more 
impressive  Sphinx,  sitting  in  lonely  majesty  in  the  actual 
desert.  The  Theban  plain  is  a  richly  cultivated  tract,  and 
the  colossus  lies  among  plots  of  maise  and  lentils.  But 
Shelley  never  visited  Egypt.  It  is  a  little  curious  that 
Egypt,  vrhich  offers  such  a  rich  field  for  poetic  treatment, 
has  never  had  justice  done  to  it  by  modern  poets  of  the 
first  rank.  Spain  has  had  Southey  for  its  laureate,  and 
Germany,  Coleridge  and  Longfellow;  while  as  for  Italy 
and  Switzerland,  a  whole  army  of  poets  have  sung  their 
praises,  from  Shelley,  Byron,  and  Landor  down  to  the  facile 
rhymester  Rogers.  Egypt,  with  all  its  wealth  of  material 
for  an  epic  poem,  has  done  little  more  than  inspire  a  few 
fragmentary  sonnets  from  Shelley,  Leigh  Hunt,  and  Moore. 

The  most  popular,  if  the  word  is  permissible  in  connec- 
tion with  these  stupendous  ruins  of  an  extinct  civilisation, 
of  all  the  Theban  monuments  are  the  two  Colossi,  which 
for  over  three  thousand  years  daily  watched  the  dawn 
breaking  over  the  Karnak  temples.  These  two  alone 
remain,  though  they  probably  formed  but  the  vanguard  of 
a  procession  of  statues  which  guarded  the  approach  to  the 
palace  of  King  Amen-Hetep  III.,  which  has  now  almost 
entirely  disappeared.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  two 
statues  is,  of  course,  the  one  known  as  the  Vocal  Memnon, 
from  a  tradition  that  it  emitted  sounds  when  the  sun's  rays 
fell  upon  it     Many  are  the  theories  ventilated  by  scientists 


"  THE .  CITY   OF   A   HUNDRED    GATES.  285 

to  explain  the  origin  of  this  legend ;  for,  needless  to  say, 
the  statue  is  mute  now,  and,  indeed,  has  been  silent,  accord- 
ing to  the  chroniclers,  since  it  was  repaired  in  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Severus.  Such  inquiries  are,  however,  futile 
enough,  as  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  credulous  worship- 
pers were  deceived  by  a  "  pious  fraud  "  of  the  priests,  who 
were  either  possessed  of  ventriloquial  skill,  or  contented 
themselves  with  hiding  in  the  statue  and  secretly  striking 
it.  Certain  kinds  of  granite  have,  it  is  well  known,  a 
musical  ring.  Humboldt  has  described  similar  sounding 
rocks  in  the  Orinoco  Yalley,  which  yielded  musical  notes, 
supposed  to  be  caused  by  wind  passing  through  the  chinks, 
and  agitating  the  spangles  of  mica  into  audible  vibration. 
The  pedestal  of  this  statue  is  covered  with  what  may  be 
considered  testimonials  of  its  musical  merits,  inscribed  in 
Greek  and  Latin  by  visitors  from  the  first  century  down- 
wards. One  of  these  inscriptions  records  the  visit  of  the 
Emperor  Hadrian. 

The  most  important  monument,  from  an  archaeological 
point  of  view,  as  well  as  the  most  interesting,  is  the  fa- 
mous Temple  of  Queen  Hatasu  (Hatshepsu),  daughter  of 
Thotmes  I.,  and  wife  as  well  as  half-sister  of  Thotmes  II., 
who  appears  to  have  been  the  Cleopatra  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty.  This  temple  is  a  fit  memorial  of  the  "  spacious 
days  "  of  a  sovereign  who  has  been  felicitously  termed  the 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  Egypt.  Its  principal  features  are  admi- 
rably described  by  Miss  A.  B.  Edwards,  in  the  following 
passage : 

"  This  superb  structure  is  architecturally  unlike  any  other  temple 
in  Egypt.  It  stands  at  the  far  end  of  a  deep  bay,  or  natural  amphi- 
theatre, formed  by  the  steep  limestone  cliffs  which  divide  the  Valley 
of  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings  from  the  Valley  of  the  Mle.  Approached 
by  a  pair  of  obelisks,  a  pylon  gateway,  and  a  long  avenue  of  two 
hundred  sphinxes,  the  temple  consisted  of  a  succession  of  terraces  and 
flights  of  steps,  rising  one  above  the  other,  and  ending  in  a  maze  of 
colonnades  and  courtyards,  uplifted  high  against  the  mountain-side. 


286  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

The  sanctuary,  or  holy  of  holies,  to  which  all  the  rest  was  but  as 
an  avenue,  is  excavated  in  the  face  of  the  cliff,  some  five  hundred 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  Nile.  The  novelty  of  the  plan  is  so  great 
that  one  cannot  help  wondering  whether  it  was  suggested  to  the 
architect  by  the  nature  of  the  ground,  or  whether  it  was  in  any 
degree  a  reminiscence  of  strange  edifices  seen  in  far  distant  lands. 
It  bears,  at  all  events,  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  terraced  temples 
of  Chaldaea." 

The  unearthing  and  restoration  of  the  ruins  of  this 
great  temple  has  been  one  of  the  most  important  works 
carried  out  within  recent  years  by  the  Egyptian  Explora- 
tion Society.  The  work  had  occupied  them  four  succes- 
sive winters,  and  was  only  completed  last  season  (1896-7). 
The  discoveries  brought  to  light  during  this  long  and  sys- 
tematic excavation  are  of  the  greatest  antiquarian  and 
historical  value.  One  of  the  most  significant  was  the  dis- 
covery of  a  large  hall,  in  which  was  a  huge  stone  altar, 
the  only  one  discovered  in  Egypt.  The  altar  is  dedicated 
to  Queen  Hatasu's  father,  Harmachis.  It  is  curious  that 
Hatasu's  cartouche  is  rarely  found  perfect.  It  is  usually 
more  or  less  erased,  probably  through  the  jealousy  of  her 
successor,  Thotmes  III.  The  cartouche,  which  is  such  an 
essential  feature  in  all  stone  inscriptions,  seems  to  have 
virtually  served  the  purpose  of  a  modern  visiting-card. 

Close  to  this  temple  is  the  deep  pit  in  which  were  found 
the  royal  mummies  in  1881.  In  all  probability  there  was 
some  kind  of  underground  communication  between  this 
temple  and  the  royal  cemetery,  known  only  to  the  priests. 

The  Temples  of  Rameses  I.  and  Rameses  III.,  lying 
respectively  at  the  eastern  and  western  extremities  of 
the  Theban  necropolis,  are  of  especial  interest  to  the 
student  of  history  on  account  of  the  paintings  and  in- 
scriptions which  cover  the  walls.  The  series  of  pictorial 
sculptures  on  the  walls  of  the  Medinet  Abou  (Rameses  III.) 
Temple  form  a  kind  of  panorama  in  stone,  and  are  of  the 
greatest  value  to  the  historian  as  a  pictorial  chronicle  of 


"  THE    CITY    OF   A   HUNDRED    GATES."  287 

the  conquests  of  Rameses  III.  No  doubt  they  were  in- 
tended to  rival  the  famous  illustrated  epic  of  Pentaur,  the 
poet  laureate  of  Rameses  the  Great,  in  which  the  mighty 
achievements  of  that  monarch  were  sung. 

The  temple  has  been  recently  completely  cleared  of 
rubbish.  The  second  court,  in  the  opinion  of  Mariette 
one  of  the  most  precious  in  any  Egyptian  temple,  is  the 
most  interesting  feature.  The  circular  columns  are  very 
richly  painted.  The  walls  are  covered  with  the  inevitable 
battle-scenes.  It  was  here  that  one  of  the  most  important 
discoveries  of  papyrus  in  Egypt  was  made.  Among 
them  was  the  famous  Harris  papyrus,  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  which  gives  a  very  full  precis  of  the  reign  of 
Rameses  III. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  excavations 
which  have  laid  bare  all  these  wonderful  ruins  in  the 
Theban  necropolis,  thus  adding  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
political  and  social  life  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  we  must 
remember  that  the  Theban  temples  were  intended  to  serve 
many  purposes.  They  are,  of  course,  chiefly  memorial 
chapels,  like  the  Medici  Chapel  at  Florence,  or  the  Spanish 
Escurial ;  but  they  also  served  as  a  treasury,  a  kind  of 
muniment  room,  a  library,  and  even  as  a  kind  of  national 
portrait  gallery. 

The  Tombs  of  the  Kings  should  be  reserved  for  a  whole 
day's  excursion.  They  are  hewn  out  of  the  living  rock  in 
the  mountains,  some  three  miles  from  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nile.  The  contrast  between  the  fertile  plain  and  these 
gloomy  mountain  gorges  is  very  striking,  and  the  name 
"  Valley  of  Death,"  which  has  been  given  to  these  dreary 
and  desolate  defiles,  is  happily  chosen.  The  kings  of  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth  dynasties  were  buried  here,  though, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  royal  mummies  had  been  removed  to 
Dar-El-Bahari,  about  966  b.  c,  to  secure  them  against  pil- 
lage,—  a  precaution,  we  are  reminded  by  the  presence  of  the 


288  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

mummies  at  Ghizeh,  quite  ineffectual  against  the  excavations 
of  savants  and  antiquarians.  Several  of  the  best  sarcophagi, 
too,  are  distributed  among  Continental  museums;  for  in- 
stance, the  sarcophagus  of  Rameses  III.  is  in  the  Louvre, 
the  lid  in  the  Fitz William  Museum  at  Cambridge,  while  the 
mummy  itself  is  in  the  Cairo  Museum.  Though  the  chief 
interest  of  these  tombs  is  therefore  wanting,  the  tombs 
themselves  are  worthy  of  thorough  examination.  The  prin- 
ciples of  construction  are  similar  to  those  of  the  Assouan 
tombs.  They  consist  of  long  inclined  tunnels,  intersected 
by  mortuary  chambers  which  in  some  cases  burrow  into  the 
heart  of  the  rock  for  four  or  five  hundred  feet.  "  Belzoni's 
Tomb"  is  one  of  the  "show"  ones.  Here  was  buried  Seti 
I.,  the  father  of  Rameses  the  Great.  This  magnificent  sar- 
cophagus is  one  of  the  chief  treasures  of  the  Soane  Museum, 
London.  It  is  nine  feet  in  length,  carved  out  of  one  block 
of  translucent  Oriental  alabaster.  It  is  covered  both  inside 
and  out  with  hieroglyphic  writing  and  figures  from  the 
mythology  of  Egypt,  representing  the  judgment  of  the  dead, 
and  other  subjects.  This  sarcophagus  was  discovered  by 
Belzoni,  in  the  year  1817,  and  purchased  by  Sir  John  Soane 
from  Mr.  Salt,  in  1824,  for  the  sum  of  .£2,000. 

According  to  Strabo,  there  are  forty  of  these  royal  tombs, 
but  the  labours  of  the  Government  officials  have  not  yet 
succeeded  in  bringing  to  light  more  than  twenty-five  of 
these  sepulchres.  Scarcely  more  than  half  of  the  tombs 
which  have  been  opened  are  included,  however,  in  the  ordi- 
nary dragoman's  programme.  The  walls  of  the  corridors 
and  of  the  mortuary  chamber  are  covered  with  extracts 
from  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  and  with  paintings,  which 
show  skilful  and  elaborate  draughtsmanship. 

"  On  one  of  the  subterranean  corridors  leading  to  Belzoni's  Tomb 
there  is  an  allegory  of  the  progress  of  the  sun  through  the  hours, 
painted  with  great  detail :  the  God  of  Day  sits  in  a  boat  (in  compli- 
ment to  the  Nile,  he  lays  aside  his  chariot  here),  and  steers  through 


"the  city  of  a  hundred  gates."        289 

the  hours  of  day  and  night,  each  of  the  latter  being  distinguished 
by  a  star.  The  whole  circumstance  of  ancient  Egyptian  life,  with 
all  its  vicissitudes,  may  be  read  in  pictures  out  of  these  extraordinary 
tombs,  from  the  birth,  through  all  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  life,  to 
the  death ;  the  lamentation  over  the  corpse,  the  embalmer's  opera- 
tions, and,  finally,  the  judgment  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  ^ 

These  royal  vaults  are  known  to  the  guides  by  numbers 
merely.  One  which  is  seldom  visited  possesses  peculiar 
interest  to  Biblical  students,  and  is  numbered  fifteen.  Ac- 
cording to  Mr.  J.  A.  Paine,  an  American  Egyptologist,  who 
has  written  a  suggestive  and  well-argued  article  in  the 
«  Century,"  this  tomb  was  prepared  for  Seti  II.,  the  first- 
born son  of  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Oppression,  who  died  in  the 
last  plague  of  the  Egyptians.  Though  Seti  II.  is  reckoned 
among  the  Egyptian  sovereigns,  records  seem  to  prove  that 
he  sat  on  the  throne  with  his  father ;  so  this  need  not  upset 
Mr.  Paine's  theory  that  Seti  died  in  his  father's  lifetime. 

The  above  necessarily  hasty  and  superficial  glance  at  the 
more  famous  monuments  will,  perhaps,  whet  the  appetite 
of  the  visitor  for  a  more  thorough  exploration,  and  will  at 
any  rate  help  him  to  realise  that  a  whole  winter  at  Luxor 
would  scarcely  sufiice  to  exhaust  the  tombs  and  temples 
of  ancient  Thebes.  A  consideration,  then,  of  the  claims  of 
Luxor  as  a  winter  residence  may  appropriately  close  this 
chapter. 

A  whole  winter  here  would  be  especially  attractive  to 
those  who  recognise  the  fact  that  Thebes  is  not  a  place 
to  be  "  done,"  and  who  can  appreciate  the  peculiar  fasci- 
nation of  Luxor, — emphatically  one  of  those  places  which, 
in  common  parlance,  "  grow  upon  you."  Here,  too,  one  is 
able  to  see  more  of  the  life  of  the  people,  and  realise  more 
of  the  native  atmosphere  than  is  possible  at  a  popular 
cosmopolitan  winter-city  like  Cairo.  But  apart  from  these 
aesthetic  considerations,  the  material  aspect  of  the  case 

1  "  The  Crescent  and  the  Cross." 


290  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

is  a  factor  which  cannot  be  neglected.     Living  at  Luxor  is 
comparatively  cheap. 

The  cost  of  wintering  in  Egypt  is  rather  overrated,  un- 
less this  implies  residence  at  a  fashionable  Cairo  hotel, 
where,  if  the  visitor  wishes  to  take  part  in  the  social  life 
of  the  winter  residents,  he  would  no  doubt  find  Egypt  an 
unusually  expensive  residence,  and  it  would  be  a  difficult 
feat  to  keep  the  daily  expenditure  below  two  pounds  a  day. 
But  the  economical  visitor,  to  say  nothing  of  the  invalid, 
must  eschew  the  "  flesh-pots  of  Egypt "  so  far  as  they  are 
represented  by  the  gaieties  of  this  lively  city;  and  if  he 
makes  Luxor  his  winter  headquarters,  he  will  find  that  his 
three  months  (including  journey  from  England)  will  not 
cost  him  more  than  £80  or  £85  ;  that  is,  under  a  pound  a 
day.     Let  us  take  the  items : 

First-class  return  by  North  German  Lloyd  steamers  (the 
most  moderate  of  the  first-class  steamship  companies) 
from  Southampton  and  Port  Said  .         .         .         £29.2.2 

(From  New  York  to  Genoa,  £32.8.0,  first-class  return.) 
Cairo  to  Luxor  (second-class  rail,  first  steamer)      .         .  6.9.0 

Extras  on  voyage,  rail   from  Port   Said  to  Cairo,  Cairo 

hotel,  etc.,  say 5.0.0 

Sixty  days  at  Luxor  hotel  at  10s 30.0.0 

Government  tax  for  Egyptian  temples  .         .         .  1.0.6 

Luncheon,  wine,  baksheesh,  donkeys,  and  incidentals,  at 

£1  per  week  12.0.0 


Total £83.11.8 

No  doubt  this  amount  would  suffice  almost  for  a  whole 
winter  at  a  cheap  Riviera  pension,  but  a  sojourn  of  the 
same  length  at  any  extra-European  winter -resort  could 
scarcely  be  managed  for  less.  The  expense  would  be  reduced 
from  five  pounds  or  six  pounds  by  taking  one  of  the  cheaper 
steamship  lines  to  Port  Said  or  Ismailia,  such  as  the  Anchor, 
Moss,  or  Papayanni;  but  none  of  these  services  are  alto- 
gether satisfactory,  especially  the  two  latter,  and  for  an 


"  THE    CITY    OF   A   HUNDRED    GATES."  291 

invalid  they  are  impossible.  In  fact,  a  delicate  person  would 
be  more  comfortable  travelling  second-class  in  one  of  the 
Orient  or  P.  and  0.  steamers.  Then,  another  reason  why 
Luxor  is  so  economical  a  residence  is  that  there  are  few 
opportunities  for  spending  money  in  a  place  where  there 
are  no  urban  amusements,  no  society  entertainments,  no 
cabs,  no  cafds,  and  no  shops  (except  for  spurious  antiques), 
and  where  vehicular  means  of  locomotion  are  confined  to 
donkeys,  at  a  few  piastres  a  day.  The  exploration  of  the 
temples  and  ruins  is  the  one  resource  and  recreation, 
and  this  entails  no  extra  expenditure  when  once  the 
Government  tax  of  one  hundred  piastres  (XI. 0.6)  is 
paid. 

Baksheesh  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  a  formidable  item 
in  the  incidental  expenditure ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
permanent  visitors  at  Luxor  are  not  usually  regarded  as 
a  legitimate  or  valuable  quarry  by  the  natives,  who  confine 
their  attentions,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  short-time  passen- 
gers by  the  tourist  steamers.  The  amusing  baksheesh 
stories,  which  form  the  stock  of  the  table  d^Mte  humourist, 
are  generally  invented,  or,  at  all  events,  considerably  em- 
bellished. Few  newcomers  will  be  spared,  for  instance,  the 
time-honoured  yarn  of  the  English  medical  man  at  Luxor, 
who  used  to  doctor  the  natives,  — of  course,  gratuitously, — 
and  whose  patients,  after  being  cured,  used  to  come  down 
on  him  for  baksheesh,  on  the  plea  that  they  had  taken  his 
medicines ! 

The  hotel  accommodation  is  good  and  comfortable ;  but 
the  three  hotels  are  hardly  sufficient,  and  are  apt  to  be  over- 
crowded. The  largest  hotel,  the  Luxor,  is  expensive ;  but 
it  is  a  particularly  well-found  and  even  luxurious  establish- 
ment, and  may  rank  as  a  first-class  house,  though,  of 
course,  it  cannot  compare  with  the  palatial  Cairo  hotels. 
The  cuisine  reflects  credit  on  the  manager,  considering  the 
"  commissariat  base  "  is  nearly  five  hundred  miles  distant, 


292  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  that  Luxor  itself  is  but  a  large  village.  The  terms 
here  and  at  the  Karnak  are  thirteen  or  fifteen  shillings  a 
day,  according  to  the  season ;  but  visitors  staying  at  least 
a  month  are  taken  at  twelve  shillings  a  day.  The  Thew- 
fikieh  Hotel  (Gaze's)  is  a  very  comfortable  house  with  par- 
ticularly moderate  tariff  (twelve  shillings  a  day  all  through 
the  season),  and  by  many  is  preferred  to  the  more  preten- 
tious Hotel  Luxor.  For  one  thing,  it  is  much  quieter,  and 
in  this  respect  better  adapted  for  those  wintering  in  Egypt 
for  health.  Long-stay  visitors  are  taken  at  ten  shillings 
a  day.  Invalids  find  every  comfort,  including  English 
doctor,  English  nurse  and  chambermaids,  dairy,  etc.  Its 
one  drawback  is  its  noisiness.  Four  or  five  times  a  week 
passengers  by  the  Nile  tourist-steamers  arrive  and  depart 
in  throngs,  and  are  apt  to  monopolise  the  hotel,  to  the  dis- 
may of  permanent  visitors. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that,  thanks  mainly  to  the  efforts 
of  Mr.  J.  M.  Cook,  Luxor  is  now  a  chaplaincy  of  the  Colo- 
nial and  Continental  Church  Society.  There  is  no  chemist 
yet  at  Luxor,  but  necessary  drugs  can  be  obtained  at  the 
Dispensary  of  the  Native  Hospital.  There  is  a  post  from 
Cairo  three  days  a  week.  The  post-office  is  attached  to 
the  Luxor  Hotel,  which  is  a  remarkably  self-contained 
establishment. 

That  Luxor  has  a  great  future  before  it  both  as  a  health- 
resort  and  a  tourist  centre  is  indisputable.  The  railway, 
now  open  almost  as  far  as  Keneh  (three  hundred  and  forty 
miles  from  Cairo,  and  only  thirty  miles  from  Luxor),  is 
making  good  progress,  and  will  probably  reach  Luxor  in 
the  course  of  next  winter.  This  extension  will  do  much 
towards  making  Luxor  a  favourite  winter-resort  for  in- 
valids. It  will  also  popularise  it  as  a  goal  of  travel  among 
ordinary  tourists,  who  have  only  a  few  weeks  for  Egypt. 
Hitherto  the  Nile  trip  has  made  too  great  inroads  on  the 
time  and  purse  of  the  short-time  travellers.     When  the 


*'  THE    CITY    OF   A   HUNDRED    GATES."  293 

railway  is  continued  to  the  Theban  plain,  it  will  be  possible 
to  pay  a  hasty  visit  to  the  unrivalled  monuments  of  ancient 
Thebes  and  be  back  in  the  Egyptian  capital  within  three 
days,  at  an  outlay  of  not  much  more  than  a  five-pound 
note. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ASSOUAN    AND    PHIL^. 

BETWEEN  Thebes  and  Assouan  two  interesting  temples 
or  groups  of  temples  are  passed,  —  Esneh  and  Edfu. 
Erment  is  no  doubt  included  in  the  Nile  itineraries,  but 
this  modern  town  is  important  merely  as  a  flourishing 
manufacturing  centre,  —  sugar  being  the  chief  industry,  — 
and  the  antiquities  are  now  non-existent.  Every  vestige 
has  disappeared  of  the  large  temple,  and  the  only  survival 
of  the  smaller  one  are  a  few  ruined  columns. 

Esneh  is  a  populous  market-town,  and  the  capital  of  the 
province.  Modern  buildings  occupy  the  site  of  the  ancient 
city  of  Latopolis,  but  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  which  are 
not  buried  in  the  soil,  are  extremely  beautiful.  Like  most 
other  Ptolemaic  monuments,  —  for  all  that  remains  is  of 
Ptolemaic  work,  —  this  has  been  ignored  by  antiquarians 
and  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund ;  and  since  Mehemet  Ali 
cleared  a  part  of  the  hypostyle  hall  of  the  temple,  hardly 
anything  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  restoration.  Yet 
from  the  elegant  architecture  of  the  columns  now  visible, 
systematic  excavations  and  clearing  away  of  rubbish  would 
probably  reveal  a  temple  almost  as  beautiful  as  those  of 
Denderah  or   Edfu. 

Miss  Edwards's  graphic  description,  though  written 
twenty  years  ago,  applies  in  all  essentials  to  the  ruins  as 
seen  at  the  present  day: 

«  This  is  what  we  see  :  a  Uttle  yard  surrounded  by  mud  walls ;  at 
the  farther  end  of  the  yard,  a  dilapidated  doorway;  beyond  the 
doorway,  a  strange-looking   stupendous  mass  of  yellow  limestone 

294 


ASSOUAN   AND    PHIL^.  295 

masonry.  A  few  steps  farther,  and  this  proves  to  be  the  carved  cor- 
nice of  a  mighty  temple,  —  a  temple  neither  ruined  nor  defaced,  but 
buried  to  the  chin  in  the  accumulated  rubbish  of  a  score  of  centuries. 
This  part  is  evidently  the  portico.  We  stand  close  under  a  row  of 
huge  capitals.  The  columns  that  support  them  are  buried  beneath 
our  feet.  The  ponderous  cornice  juts  out  above  our  heads.  From 
the  level  on  which  we  stand  to  the  top  of  that  cornice  may  measure 
about  twenty-five  feet.  Descending  a  flight  of  brick  steps  which  lead 
down  to  a  vast  hall,  we  come  to  the  original  level  of  the  temple. 
We  tread  the  ancient  pavement.  We  look  up  at  the  massive  ceiling, 
recessed  and  sculptured,  and  painted  like  the  ceiling  at  Denderah. 
We  could  almost  believe,  indeed,  that  we  are  standing  in  the  portico 
of  Denderah.  The  general  effect  and  the  main  features  of  the  plan 
are  the  same.  In  some  respects,  however,  Esneh  is  even  more  strik- 
ing. The  columns,  though  less  massive  than  those  of  Denderah,  are 
more  elegant,  and  look  loftier.  Their  shafts  are  covered  with  fig- 
ures of  gods  and  emblems,  and  lines  of  hieroglyphed  inscription,  all 
cut  out  in  low-relief.  Their  capitals,  in  place  of  the  huge  draped 
Hathor-head  of  Denderah,  are  studied  from  natural  forms,  —  from 
the  lotus  lily,  the  papyrus  blossom,  the  plumy  date-palm.  The  wall- 
sculpture,  however,  is  inferior  to  that  of  Denderah,  and  immeasur- 
ably inferior  to  the  wall-sculpture  at  Karnak.  The  inscriptions, 
instead  of  being  grouped  wherever  there  happened  to  be  space,  and 
so  producing  the  richest  form  of  wall-decoration  ever  devfsed  by 
man,  are  disposed  in  symmetrical  columns,  the  effect  of  which, 
when  compared  with  the  florid  style  of  Karnak,  is  as  the  methodical 
neatness  of  an  engrossed  deed  to  the  splendid  freedom  of  an  illum- 
inated manuscript." 

The  temple  is  dedicated  to  Khnum  or  Knept,  who  is  rep- 
resented as  a  ram  with  the  asp  between  his  horns,  which  is 
supposed  to  imply  some  idea  of  sovereignty  over  the  gods, 
for  in  Roman  times  Khnum  was  considered  to  be  identical 
with  Jupiter.  The  magnificent  temple  of  Edfu,  a  gem 
among  Ptolemaic  monuments,  has  already  been  noticed, 
with  the  other  famous  shrines  of  the  Ptolemies,  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter. 

Assouan  lies  some  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  south 
of  Luxor;  but  the  scenic  conditions  are  very  dissimilar, 
and  the  immediate  surroundings  are  more  picturesque  than 


296  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

those  of  ancient  Thebes.  Instead  of  a  fertile  plain  stretch- 
ing for  miles  on  either  side  of  the  Nile,  the  river  narrows, 
a  mile  or  so  above  Assouan,  to  a  gorge  hemmed  in  by  stu- 
pendous granite  walls,  which  mark  the  approach  to  the 
First  Cataract.  The  town  stands  well  above  the  Nile,  and 
has  a  decidedly  imposing  appearance  from  the  river,  the 
banks  being  lined  with  Government  buildings,  several 
handsome  hotels,  and  large  shops.  The  river-front  is,  in- 
deed, rather  too  European-looking  to  please  the  aesthetic 
tourist ;  but  the  Oriental  note  is  provided  by  an  occasional 
minaret  towering  above  the  modern  white  buildings,  and 
by  the  groves  of  palm-trees  and  acacias  which  surround 
the  town. 

Assouan,  unlike  Luxor,  has  few  remains  of  the  extinct 
civilisation  of  Egypt,  most  of  the  antiquities  being  late 
Roman  or  Saracenic,  and  regarded  with  little  respect  by 
Egyptologists,  who  are  apt  to  be  a  little  intolerant  of  all 
ruins  of  later  date  than  the  Ptolemies.  The  town,  how- 
ever, offers  many  points  of  interest  to  the  traveller  of 
wider  sympathies  than  the  dry-as-dust  antiquary.  The 
student  of  astronomy  will  no  doubt  remember  that  the 
Ptolemaic  astronomers,  erroneously  supposing  Assouan  to 
be  exactly  on  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  carried  out  here  their 
calculations  for  measuring  the  earth  ;i  while  to  classical 
students  it  will  be  of  interest  as  an  important  frontier  city 
of  the  Romans,  and  Juvenal's  place  of  exile,  whence  he 
wrote  many  of  his  Satires. 

To  come  to  our  own  days,  Assouan  will  soon  be  a  fa- 
vourite goal  of  engineers  and  scientific  men  as  the  site  of 
the  greatest  engineering  enterprise,  after  the  Suez  Canal, 
ever  carried  out  in  Egypt.     It  is  here  that  the  great  bar- 

» Strabo,  as  is  well  known,  says  that  in  a  certain  well  the  sun  at  the  summer 
solstice  shone  direct,  without  casting  a  shadow.  The  site  of  this  well  cannot  be 
located,  which  causes  some  scientists  to  throw  doubt  on  the  accuracy  of  Strabo's 
story,  especially  as  the  actual  tropic  is  a  few  miles  farther  south,  between  Phils 
and  Kalabsheh. 


ASSOUAN   AND    PHILJE.  297 

rage  of  Upper  Egypt  is  to  be  built  —  a  greater  structure 
than  the  huge  dam  in  the  Delta,  which  for  so  many  years 
proved  a  "white  elephant"  to  the  Egyptian  Government  — 
in  spite  of  the  agitation  set  on  foot  by  Egyptologists,  who 
naturally  feared  that  the  Philae  temples  would  be  sub- 
merged by  the  artificial  lake  which  would  be  created. 
However,  every  precaution  against  injury  to  these  monu- 
ments will  be  taken  by  the  Government.  Besides,  as  em- 
banking and  damming  the  Nile  at  Assouan  is  estimated  to 
increase  the  amount  of  crops  in  Egypt  to  nine  times  their 
present  yields  it  is  probable  that,  in  any  case,  purely  senti- 
mental and  aesthetic  reasons  would  not  have  been  allowed 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  this  enormous  material  benefit  to 
the  country.  At  the  risk  of  being  thought  a  "  devil's  ad- 
vocate," I  cannot  help  protesting  against  the  conventional 
cuckoo-cry  of  vandalism  so  often  raised  by  the  superficial 
tourist  to  earn  a  cheap  reputation  for  culture.  In  such  a 
question  the  welfare  of  the  Egyptian  people  should  be  the 
first  consideration,  and,  as  has  been  clearly  demonstrated, 
the  gain  to  a  poverty-stricken  and  overtaxed  population 
would  be  almost  incalculable. 

Assouan  has  some  claim  to  be  considered  a  potential 
health-resort.  Its  climate,  except  in  the  late  spring 
months,  is  superior,  perhaps,  even  to  that  of  Luxor.  In 
April  and  May,  owing,  no  doubt,  to  its  shut-in  situation, 
it  is,  however,  too  hot  to  make  a  suitable  or  pleasant  resi- 
dence for  invalids,  —  in  fact,  some  observers  have  made  its 
average  temperature  higher  even  than  that  of  Wady  Haifa, 
which  is  well  within  the  tropics.  Up  to  April,  however, 
the  climatic  conditions  are  not  surpassed  by  those  of  any 
place  on  the  Nile. 

Though  the  undeniable  excellence  of  the  climate  of 
Assouan,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  Egyptian  season  for 
foreigners,  has  been  generally  admitted  by  medical  men, 
hitherto  its  comparative  difficulty  and  costliness  of  access, 


298  THE    CITY    OF   THE    CALIPHS. 

and  the  great  popularity  of  its  rival,  Luxor,  have  stood  in 
the  way  of  its  development  as  an  invalid  station.  Its  situ- 
ation is  superior  hygienically  to  that  of  Luxor.  The  latter 
is  only  a  few  feet  above  the  Nile,  and  under  water  for  a 
part  of  the  year,  while  Assouan  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
annual  inundation.  This,  of  course,  minimises  the  risk  of 
malarial  fever.  Then,  to  a  certain  extent,  Luxor  suffers 
from  those  factitious  drawbacks  which  make  Cairo  so  ill- 
suited  as  a  winter  residence  for  the  health-seeker,  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  mere  sun- worshipper.  Luxor,  indeed,  like 
that  cosmopolitan  winter-city,  is  decidedly  gay  and  fashion- 
able during  the  height  of  the  season,  and  altogether  too 
noisy  and  crowded  for  delicate  people.  The  Nile  banks 
are  lined  with  dahabiyehs,  lavishly  decorated  with  flow- 
ers and  bunting,  and  at  night  glowing  with  hundreds  of 
Chinese  lanterns  and  fairy  lamps.  These  brilliant  illumi- 
nations, the  crowds  of  fashionable  visitors  thronging  the 
decks  of  these  pleasure-craft,  the  twanging  of  the  universal 
mandolin  or  banjo,  may  perhaps  suggest  to  the  correspond- 
ents of  society  journals  an  "  Arabian  Nights'  Fairy-land," 
but  to  the  ordinary  visitor  everything  is  unpleasantly  rem- 
iniscent of  Henley  Regatta,  with  dahabiyehs  for  house- 
boats and  tourist  steamers  for  steam-launches.  At  all 
events,  there  is  something  bizarre  and  startling  in  the  con- 
trast afforded  by  the  grim  and  solemn  Theban  temples 
which  form  the  background  to  this  scene  of  fashionable 
revelry. 

Assouan,  though  the  farthest  outpost  of  invalid  colonisa- 
tion in  Egypt,  and  situated  some  six  hundred  miles  from 
the  capital,  is  fairly  well  provided  with  what  English  resi- 
dents in  foreign  watering-places  regard  as  necessities  of 
life,  including  a  first-class,  but  expensive,  hotel,  a  resident 
English  doctor  and  chaplain,  British  vice-consul,  post- 
office  (three  deliveries  a  week),  telegraph-office,  etc.  In 
short,  though  at  present  but  an  incipient  health-resort,  and 


ASSOUAN  AND   PHIL^.  299 

owing  to  the  cost  of  the  journey  and  the  high  hotel 
charges  (there  being  only  one  first-class  hotel,  the  pro- 
prietor can  hardly  be  blamed  for  exercising  the  tyranny  of 
a  monopoly)  practically  confined  to  the  richer  class  of  in- 
valid visitors,  Assouan  has  a  future.  With  the  completion 
of  the  railway,  which  will  enable  the  journey  from  Cairo 
to  be  performed  in  less  than  half  the  time  and  at  less  than 
half  the  cost  of  the  present  combined  rail  and  mail-steamer 
service,  an  assured  position  as  a  climatic  health-resort  may 
be  predicted  for  it,  and  a  few  years  will  probably  see  a 
large  invalid  colony  established  here. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  some  time  during  the  course  of 
the  season  of  1897-8  the  railway  will  reach  Assouan,  in- 
tended as  the  joint  terminus  of  the  Upper  Nile  and  Soudan 
Railways.  Considerable  progress  has  already  been  made 
in  the  construction  of  the  former  railway,  which  has  now 
reached  as  far  as  Keneh,  some  forty  miles  north  of  Luxor. 
Now  that  the  Nile  has  been  crossed  at  Nagh  Hamadi,  the 
continuation  of  the  Assouan  section  offers  little  difficulty 
to  the  engineers.  As  for  the  Soudan  Military  Railway, 
the  Wady  Haifa  and  Berber  section  is  now  finished  as  far 
as  Kirma,  at  the  Third  Cataract,  only  twenty  miles  north 
of  Dongola. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes's  fond  dream  of  a  trans-conti- 
nental railway  from  Cairo  to  Cape  Town  is  not  such  a  wild 
and  visionary  project  after  all.  Who  knows  but  that,  in 
the  dim  and  distant  future.  Nubia,  with  its  incomparable 
climate,  will  replace  the  Riviera  or  Algeria  as  the  world's 
great  winter  sanatorium  ?  ^ 

Nine  out  of  ten  visitors  to  Assouan  are,  however,  quite 
indifferent  as  to  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  place  as  an 
invalid  station,  and  therefore  we  will  proceed  to  visit  its 


^  These  observations  on  the  future  of  Assouan  are  taken  from  an  article  enti- 
tled "  Assouan :  a  Potential  Health-Resort,"  which  I  recently  contributed  to  an 
English  review. 


300  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

lions.  The  chief  objects  of  interest,  next  to  the  beautiful 
Island  of  Philae,  are  the  famous  rock-tombs,  the  ancient 
quarries,  and  the  Cataract. 

The  tombs,  which,  according  to  the  absurd  practice 
that  prevails  in  Egypt  of  labelling  remains  after  the 
name  of  the  discoverer,  are  popularly  known  as  Grenf ell's 
Tombs,  have  only  been  partially  explored.  These  rock- 
shrines  were  excavated  in  the  cliffs  of  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nile  by  General  Grenf  ell  in  1887.  In  some  respects 
they  resemble  the  tombs  of  Beni  Hassan,  but  it  is  only 
at  Assouan  that  we  see  traces  of  the  striking  methods  of 
transporting  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  It  is  a  kind  of  slide 
cut  out  from  the  face  of  the  almost  perpendicular  cliff,  and 
on  each  side  are  remains  of  the  steps  for  the  bearers  who 
drew  up  the  mummy  from  the  river. 

The  most  striking  tomb  is  that  of  Ra-Nub-Ko-Necht 
(Amen-Em-Hat  II.),  a  sovereign  of  the  twelfth  dynasty ; 
but  it  is  generally  —  perhaps  excusably,  in  view  of  the 
cumbrous  designation  of  its  tenant  —  known  as  GrenfelFs 
Tomb.  The  entrance  to  this  tomb  is  impressive,  from  the 
startling  contrasts,  and  perhaps  was  intended  to  produce  a 
dramatic  effect  on  the  spectator. 

"  The  gloomy  entrance,  with  its  great,  rough-hewn 
square  columns  and  its  mysterious  side-aisles,  unrelieved 
by  a  ray  of  light  or  a  scrap  of  carving,  leads  to  a  square 
doorway  some  thirty  feet  from  the  entrance,  which  it  di- 
rectly faces.  A  narrow  passage  is  then  entered.  At  the 
very  end,  with  the  daylight  streaming  in  full  and  clear 
upon  it,  is  the  shrine  which  bears  the  portraits  of  the  sov- 
ereign and  his  family.  The  passage  by  which  you  reach  it 
is  unspeakably  impressive.  On  either  side  are  three  deep 
niches  in  the  dark  walls.  Before  you  yawns  an  apparently 
bottomless  pit.  Each  of  the  niches  is  seen  to  contain  an 
upright  mummy,  which  gazes  at  you  with  sad  eyes  as  you 
pass  by.     These  six  sepulchral  figures  are  carved  in  stone 


ASSOUAN   AND    PHILiE.  301 

and  coloured,  and  form  an  appropriate  line  of  sentinels  to 
the  entrance  of  the  inner  tomb." 

Scarcely  a  mile  from  the  town  are  the  famous  granite 
quarries  of  Syene,  from  which  was  hewn  the  stone  for 
most  of  the  famous  obelisks  and  other  monoliths  of  the 
early  Egyptian  kings.  In  fact,  certain  inscriptions  show 
that  even  in  the  sixth  dynasty  stone  was  quarried  here  for 
Egyptian  temples  and  sarcophagi.  An  obelisk  entirely  de- 
tached on  three  sides  from  the  rock,  nearly  one  hundred 
feet  in  length,  may  be  seen  in  situ,  as  well  as  unfinished 
columns,  sarcophagi,  etc.,  which  show  that  Syene  in  the 
time  of  the  Pharaohs  was  not  only  a  quarry,  but  what  we 
should  nowadays  describe  as  a  monumental  mason's  stone- 
yard.  It  is  particularly  interesting  to  see  actual  traces  of 
the  workmen's  methods  of  cutting  out  an  obelisk  en  bloc 
from  the  solid  rock.  A  row  of  holes  was  bored  along  the 
whole  length  of  the  proposed  obelisk,  into  which  wooden 
wedges  were  driven.  Water  was  afterwards  poured  on  the 
wedges,  when  the  swelling  would  crack  the  stone  and  sep- 
arate it  from  the  mass  of  rock.  It  was  then  roughly 
dressed  at  the  quarries,  hauled  to  the  Nile  upon  a  sledge 
run  on  rollers,  and  then  floated  down  to  its  destination  on 
a  barge.  The  fact  that  even  now  engineers,  although 
aided  by  all  the  resources  of  science,  would  not  be  likely  to 
improve  upon  the  methods  (teste  the  removal  of  Cleopatra's 
Needle)  of  some  four  thousand  or  five  thousand  years  ago, 
if  they  wished,  for  instance,  to  transport  the  one  remaining 
obelisk,  affords  food  for  reflection. 

The  Island  of  Philae  is  the  chief  feature  of  interest  at 
Assouan.  Though  a  mere  rock,  barely  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
long,  it  is  thickly  covered  with  ruins  of  Ptolemaic  temples 
and  monuments,  and  is,  perhaps,  the  "  most  beautiful,  as 
well  as  the  smallest,  historic  island  in  the  world."  The 
scenery  about  here  is  very  striking  and  impressive.  In 
fact,  "  The  Approach  to  Philae  "  has  been  rendered  almost 


302  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

as  familiar  to  the  armchair  traveller,  by  means  of  innumer- 
able sketches,  as  the  Pyramids  or  the  Sphinx. 

The  most  striking  monument  in  the  island  is  the  beauti- 
ful Temple  of  Isis,  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  archi- 
tecture the  Ptolemies  have  bequeathed  to  Egypt.  For 
picturesqueness  of  form  and  surroundings  this  magnificent 
temple  cannot  be  equalled  by  any  of  the  innumerable  ruins 
of  ancient  Thebes.  Its  chief  features  are  the  Great  Col- 
onnade of  thirty-two  columns,  and  the  massive  towers  of 
the  Pylon,  each  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  wide  and 
sixty  feet  high.  The  capitals  of  the  noble  f agade  of  lofty 
columns  are  all  of  different  patterns.  Traces  still  remain 
of  the  vivid  and  varied  colouring ;  for,  according  to  the 
canons  of  art  then  prevailing,  the  shafts  and  capitals  were 
painted.  There  are  other  courts  and  colonnades  in  the 
Temple,  which,  like  the  Great  Temple  of  Karnak,  seems 
rather  a  congeries  of  temples  than  one  single  building.  The 
walls  are  covered  with  sculptures  in  low-relief.  "  Imagine 
walls,"  says  the  author  of  "  The  Crescent  and  the  Cross," 
"  whose  height  it  wearies  the  eye  to  measure,  all  covered 
with  gigantic  hieroglyphics,  where  gods  and  warriors  seem 
to  move  self -supported  between  earth  and  sky ;  then  groves 
of  columns,  whose  girth  and  height  would  rival  those  of 
the  most  corpulent  old  oak-trees,  with  capitals  luxuriant  as 
a  cauliflower,  and  gleaming  with  bright  enamel  of  every 
hue  in  heaven  ;  every  pillar  and  every  wall  so  thickly  cov- 
ered with  hieroglyphics,  that  they  seem  clothed  with  a 
petrified  tapestry." 

Another  beautiful  ruin  is  the  Temple  of  Osiris,  which, 
like  the  Palace  of  Charles  Y.  in  the  Alhambra,  never 
possessed  a  roof.  It  is  rather  absurdly  known  to  tourists 
as  Pharaoh's  Bed,  so  called  because  of  a  fancied  resem- 
blance to  a  colossal  four-post  bedstead. 

The  island  is  thickly  strewn  with  ruins  of  other  temples, 
dedicated  either  to  Isis,  Osiris,  or  Horus,  the  tutelary  triad 


ASSOUAN   AND   PHIL^.  303 

of  the  island.  In  fact  Philae  was  the  last  refuge  of  this 
cult,  a  Greek  inscription  showing  that  these  gods  were 
worshipped  here  as  late  as  453  a.  d.,  more  than,  seventy- 
years  after  the  heathen  religion  was  formally  abolished  in 
Egypt  by  Theodosius's  famous  decree.  A  portion  of  the 
Temple  of  Isis  was  converted  into  a  Coptic  church  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  To  this  period  is  due  a 
strange  mingling  of  the  Egyptian  and  Christian  faiths. 
For  instance,  Isis  was  represented  as  the  tutelary  deity  of 
Saint  John  and  Saint  Paul.  Even  the  shape  of  the  bishop's 
mitre  is  considered  by  antiquarians  to  be  directly  borrowed 
from  the  characteristic  horns  of  Osiris,  as,  according  to  tra- 
dition, Athanasius  wished  by  this  means  to  propitiate  the 
Egyptians. 

The  First  Cataract  begins  a  little  to  the  south  of  As- 
souan, and  extends  for  several  miles,  Philae  marking  the 
commencement.  Cataract,  as  we  understand  the  word,  is, 
of  course,  a  misnomer ;  it  is  actually  a  series  of  rapids. 
In  fact,  it  is  only  at  Low  Nile,  which  is  the  off  season  of 
tourists,  that  the  falls  can  be  said  to  deserve  the  name 
of  Cataract.  Though  the  description  of  the  awful  charac- 
ter of  this  Cataract  given  by  ancient  writers  is  absurdly 
exaggerated,  and  may  be  relegated  to  the  order  of  "  travel- 
lers' tales,"  the  feat  of  descending  it  is  sufficiently  exciting, 
though  it  is  a  somewhat  costly  amusement.  The  scenery, 
however,  of  the  Nile  at  this  point  is  grand  and  wild  in  the 
extreme,  and  no  visitor  should  omit  to  get  the  full  benefit 
of  it  by  climbing  one  of  the  cliffs  of  the  banks  just  above 
Philae. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

FROM   THE   FIRST   TO    THE   SECOND    CATARACT. 

Here  Desolation  keeps  unbroken  sabbath, 

'  Mid  caves  and  temples,  palaces  and  sepulchres ; 

Ideal  images  in  sculptured  forms, 

Thoughts  hewn  in  columns,  or  in  caverned  hill, 

In  honour  of  their  deities  and  of  their  dead. 

Montgomery. 

FEW  tourists,  compared  with  the  crowds  who  throng  the 
luxurious  steamers  to  Luxor  and  Assouan,  continue 
the  voyage  to  Wady  Haifa  by  the  unpretentious  little  stern- 
wheeler  which  runs  weekly  with  the  mails  between  the 
First  and  Second  Cataracts.  In  fact,  those  who  make  this 
voyage  may  be  considered  to  have  graduated  from  the  rank 
of  tourist  to  that  of  traveller.  The  desolation  of  the  banks 
and  the  absence  of  animal  life,  to  say  nothing  of  the  infe- 
rior interest  of  the  antiquities  south  of  Assouan,  make  the 
voyage,  short  as  it  is,  —  for  the  whole  expedition  only  takes 
a  week,  —  rather  monotonous  to  the  ordinary  tourist. 

The  geographical  features  of  Nubia  are  very  different 
from  those  of  the  country  south  of  Assouan ;  in  fact.  Nubia 
might  be  in  another  continent.  Instead  of  a  richly  culti- 
vated plain  extending  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of  the 
Nile,  the  bleak  sandstone  hills  which  abut  on  the  desert 
come  near  the  river,  and  the  cultivated  country,  varying  in 
breadth  from  a  few  hundred  yards  to  a  few  miles,  extends, 
a  narrow  palm-fringed  strip,  along  either  bank  of  the  Nile. 
On  the  western  bank  there  stretches  beyond  this  sparsely 

304 


THE   FIRST   TO   THE    SECOND    CATARACT.         305 

cultivated  littoral  a  savage  and  illimitable  desert,  while 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  rapidly-flowing,  coffee-coloured 
river  an  equally  desolate  wilderness  is  bounded  only  by  the 
distant  Red  Sea.  In  the  following  description  by  Dr. 
Conan  Doyle,  the  wild  note  of  the  scenery  is  very  graph- 
ically presented: 

« Between  these  two  huge  and  barren  expanses,  Nubia  writhes 
like  a  green  sand-worm  along  the  course  of  the  river.  Here  and 
there  it  disappears  altogether,  and  the  Nile  runs  between  black  and 
sun-cracked  hills,  with  the  orange  drift-sand  lying  like  glaciers  in 
their  valleys.  Everywhere  one  sees  traces  of  vanished  races  and 
submerged  civihsations.  Grotesque  graves  dot  the  hills  or  stand 
up  against  the  sky-line,  —  pyramidal  graves,  tumulus  graves,  rock 
graves,  —  everywhere  graves.  And,  occasionally,  as  the  boat  rounds 
a  rocky  point,  one  sees  a  deserted  city  up  above,  —  houses,  walls, 
battlements,  — with  the  sun  shining  through  the  empty  window 
squares.  Sometimes  you  learn  that  it  has  been  Roman,  sometimes 
Egyptian ;  sometimes  all  record  of  its  name  or  origin  has  been  abso- 
lutely lost.  There  they  stand,  these  grim  and  silent  cities,  and  up 
on  the  hills  you  can  see  the  graves  of  their  people,  like  the  port- 
holes of  a  man-of-war.  It  is  through  this  weird,  dead  country  that 
the  tourists  smoke  and  gossip  and  flirt  as  they  pass  up  to  the  Egyp- 
tian frontier." 

To  the  traveller  accustomed  to  the  never-ending  proces- 
sion of  villages  which  stud  the  Nile  banks  between  Cairo 
and  Luxor,  Nubia  seems  almost  uninhabited.  The  vege- 
tation is  too  sparse  to  support  a  large  population,  and  the 
mainstay  of  life  of  the  Nubians  is  the  date-palm,  instead 
of  barley  and  rice.  Every  palm-tree,  as  is  the  olive-tree  in 
Italy,  is  registered  and  heavily  taxed. 

In  the  two  hundred  miles*  voyage  between  the  First  and 
Second  Cataracts  there  is,  however,  one  monument  of  su- 
perlative interest;  namely,  the  famous  rock-temple  of  Abu 
Simbel  (called  by  an  older  generation  of  travellers,  Ipsam- 
boul),  which  in  point  of  antiquarian  interest  is  only  sec- 
ond to  the  Pyramid  field  of  Ghizeh  and  the  Theban  temples. 


306  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

This  unique  ruin,  in  which  some  ancient  race  has  hollowed 
out  a  vast  shrine  in  the  mountain  as  if  it  were  a  cheese, 
deserves  a  stay  of  several  days,  especially  as  the  other  ruins 
are  nearly  all  of  Ptolemaic  or  Roman  origin.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  traveller,  who  has  already  explored  Memphis 
and  Thebes,  and  contemplated  the  very  oldest  buildings 
which  the  hands  of  man  have  fashioned,  is  naturally  apt 
to  regard  with  languid  interest  temples  and  tombs  which 
are  scarcely  older  than  the  Christian  era.  But  the  won- 
derful rock-hewn  temple  of  Abu-Simbel  will  claim  the  at- 
tention of  every  traveller,  however  much  he  may  be  sated 
with  the  magnificent  temples  of  Thebes  and  Karnak.  In- 
deed, if  it  were  the  only  goal  of  this  extended  Nile  trip,  the 
voyage  would  be  well  worth  the  time  and  expense. 

The  temple  was  built  by  Rameses  the  Great  as  a  memo- 
rial of  his  victory  over  the  Khita  in  Syria,  —  a  race  con- 
sidered by  some  historians,  but  on  doubtful  authority,  to 
be  identical  with  the  Hittites.  The  temple  is  hewn  out  of 
the  solid  rock,  the  eastern  face,  fronting  the  Nile,  having 
been  cut  away,  forming  the  most  impressive  and  striking 
temple  front  in  the  world.  In  this  stupendous  faQade  four 
colossal  statues,  seated  on  thrones,  stand  out  in  bold  relief. 
Each  figure  represents  Rameses,  and  is  some  sixty-six  feet 
high,  without  reckoning  the  pedestal,  and  "the  faces,  which 
are  fortunately  well  preserved,  evince  a  beauty  of  expres- 
sion the  more  striking  as  it  is  unlooked  for  in  statues  of 
such  dimensions. 

An  amusing  incident  in  connection  with  these  colossi  is 
related  by  Miss  Edwards  in  her  "  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the 
Nile,"  —  a  record  of  travel  which  now  deservedly  ranks  as 
a  classic.  The  face  of  one  had  been  disfigured  by  plaster 
left  when  a  cast  was  taken  for  the  British  Museum ;  so 
Miss  Edwards  set  her  boatmen  to  work  to  clean  the  stone 
by  scraping  off  the  lumps  of  plaster.  The  subsequent 
process — namely,  tinting  the  white  patches  left,  where  the 


THE    FIKST    TO    THE    SECOND    CATARACT.         307 

plaster  was  removed,  with  coffee  —  may  be'  open  to  objec- 
tion on  the  part  of  archaeologists. 

Some  years  ago,  owing  to  overhanging  masses  of  rock, 
these  colossi  were  threatened  with  destruction.  This  was 
averted  by  some  very  skilful  engineering  on  the  part  of 
Captain  Johnston,  R.  E.  The  task  was  rendered  especially 
difficult,  as  no  explosives  could  be  used  because  the  vibra- 
tion would  probably  have  toppled  over  these  titanic  statues. 
One  over-hanging  rock  weighed  no  less  than  two  hundred 
and  seventy  tons.  "Five  stout  iron  cables  were  placed 
round  the  big  block,  and  then  it  was  broken  up  into  small 
pieces,  and  thrown  down  into  the  sand.  Rameses  may 
now  sit  in  peace,  and  watch  the  dawn  break  over  the 
desert  for  another  three  thousand  years.  The  two  colossi 
which  are  out  of  balance  are  to  be  pinioned  back  to  the 
rock  behind  by  iron  bands ;  the  bands  will  be  disguised 
as  much  as  possible,  but  one  regrets  that  a  more 
dignified  method  of  support  for  Pharaoh  could  not  be 
devised."  ^ 

The  entrance  to  the  temple  had  been  for  thousands  of 
years  hermetically  sealed  by  the  drifting  sands  of  the 
desert,  till  discovered  by  Belzoni,  in  1817. 

«  A  vast  and  gloomy  hall,  such  as  Eblis  might  have  given  Vathek 
audience  in,  receives  you  in  passing  from  the  flaming  sunshine  into 
that  shadowy  portal.  It  is  some  time  before  the  eye  can  ascertain 
its  dimensions  through  the  imposing  gloom ;  but  gradually  there 
reveals  itself,  around  and  above  you,  a  vast  aisle,  with  pillars  formed 
of  eight  colossal  giants  upon  whom  the  light  of  heaven  has  never 
shone.  These  images  of  Osiris  are  backed  by  enormous  pillars, 
behind  which  run  two  great  galleries,  and  in  these  torchlight  alone 
enabled  us  to  peruse  a  series  of  sculptures  in  relief,  representing  the 
triumphs  of  Rameses  the  Second,  or  Sesostris.  The  painting,  which 
once  enhanced  the  effect  of  these  spirited  representations,  is  not 
dimmed,  but  crumbled  away ;  where  it  exists,  the  colours  are  as 
vivid  as  ever."  ^ 

1  Cook's  Handbook  for  Egypt.  2  Eliot  Warburton. 


308  THE    CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

To  the  historian  Abu-Simbel  is  mainly  of  importance  as 
containing  a  long  chronicle  in  stone  of  Rameses  the  Great, 
in  which  he  describes  at  length  the  great  work  he  has 
carried  out  in  his  temple  at  Thebes.  Here  is  also  in- 
scribed the  history  in  great  detail  of  the  king's  famous 
campaign  in  Asia.  This  he  evidently  considered  his  great- 
est military  achievement,  for  it  is  inscribed  also  at  great 
length  on  the  walls  of  the  Theban  Ramasseum,  and  at 
Abydos.  These  stone  records,  which  are  virtually  a  series 
of  official  despatches,  form  a  kind  of  argument  to  a  mag- 
nificent series  of  painted  sculptures  representing  battle- 
scenes,  and  are  written  with  all  the  terseness  and  precision 
of  a  modern  official  precis. 

If  possible,  the  temple  should  be  explored  at  sunrise, 
when  the  sun's  rays,  shining  directly  through  the  entrance, 
light  up  the  interior  with  a  wonderful  effect. 

A  smaller  temple,  also  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  is  about 
fifty  yards  from  the  Great  Temple.  It  is  dedicated  to 
Hathor,  who  is  symbolised  in  the  interior  under  the  form 
of  a  cow.  This  temple  is,  however,  of  inferior  interest, 
and  might  be  regarded  in  relation  to  Rameses's  great  shrine 
as  a  "  lady  chapel,"  just  as  the  third  small  temple,  dis- 
covered in  1874,  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  chapel  of  ease. 
Forty  miles  farther  south  lies  the  important  fortified  post 
of  Wady  Haifa,  a  kind  of  "breakwater  of  barbarism," 
which  till  1896  formed  the  southern  frontier  of  the  Khe- 
dive's dominions.  ^ 

It  has  occasionally  been  found  necessary,  owing  to  the 
disturbed  state  of  the  country  and  the  hostility  of  the  der- 
vishes, to  furnish  the  post-steamers  and  steam  dahabiyehs 
—  sailing  dahabiyehs  were  not  allowed  beyond  the  First 
Cataract  —  sailing  beyond  Assouan  with  a  military  escort. 
This  escort,  which  gave  a  flavour  of  romantic  adventure  to 

lAt  the  time  of  writing  (May,  1897),  the  frontier  post  is  at  Merawi,  beyond 
Dongola. 


THE    FIRST    TO    THE    SECOND    CATARACT-         309 

the  commonplace  Nile  voyage,  was  especially  necessary  for 
tourists  exploring  the  Abu-Simbel  Temple  and  the  Pulpit 
Rock  of  Abusir ;  each  party  of  tourists  used  to  be  accom- 
panied by  a  corporal's  guard  of  Soudanese  soldiers,  who 
carried  out  their  duties  with  a  conscientiousness  which  was 
rather  embarrassing,  and  not  a  little  irritating  when  the 
novelty  had  worn  off.  This  escort  was  not,  of  course, 
intended  as  a  defence  against  a  raid  of  dervishes,  for  the 
proximity  of  the  Wady  Haifa  garrison  removed  all  danger 
of  an  open  attack  on  travellers ;  but  the  authorities  counted 
more  on  its  moral  effect  in  preventing  independent  excur- 
sions on  the  part  of  rash  travellers  who  might  be  inclined 
to  pooh-pooh  any  idea  of  danger  from  the  disaffected  der- 
vishes. Besides,  there  was  no  doubt  a  certain  risk  of 
brigandage  on  the  part  of  stray  dervishes;  for  the  move- 
ments of  travellers  were  known  days  beforehand,  and  in 
the  case  of  tourists  under  the  charge  of  tourist  agencies, 
freely  advertised. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  famous  novelist,  Conan 
Doyle,  has  recently  utilised  the  suggestion  of  exciting  adven- 
ture afforded  by  these  precautions  of  the  military  authori- 
ties in  a  thrilling  story  of  modern  adventure,  in  which  he 
describes  the  experiences  of  a  party  of  English  tourists 
attacked  by  dervishes  at  Abusir.^ 

The  one  lion  of  Wady  Haifa  is  the  famous  Pulpit  Rock 
of  Abusir,  with  the  incomparable  view  of  the  Nile  and  the 
Libyan  desert.  This  rock  is  a  veritable  "visitors'  list  "  in 
stone,  and  the  name  of  almost  every  traveller  of  note  has 
been  inscribed  here.  The  dragoman  firmly  believes  that 
Moses's  name  might  once  have  been  seen  among  the  graven 
autographs !  He  is,  however,  careful  to  add,  in  order  to 
take  the  wind  out  of  the  sails  of  the  sceptical  tourist,  that 
it  has  long  been  worn  away.     At  all  events,  the  names  of 

1  This  decidedly  up-to-date  novel  of  adventure  was  running  as  a  serial  in  the 
Strand  Magazine  during  1897. 


310  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

Belzoni,  Burckhardt,  Warburton,  and  other  famous  travel- 
lers are  to  be  seen  there  high  up  on  the  rock,  and  still 
higher,  Gordon's. 

Stern  critics  may,  perhaps,  be  inclined  to  deprecate  this 
habit  of  trying  to  impress  one's  own  trivial  personality  on 
these  immortal  rocks,  but  it  appears  that  for  some  reason  it 
is  considered  almost  praiseworthy  at  Abusir.  Even  the 
severe  Murray  gravely  declares  that  "  custom  sanctions 
here,  as  innocent  and  not  without  a  certain  interest  of 
its  own,  a  practice  which  good  taste  and  common  sense 
alike  condemn  most  strongly  when  indulged  in  to  the 
injury  of  priceless  monuments  of  antiquity  and  works  of 
art."  The  distinction  is  a  subtle  one;  and  without  arro- 
gating to  myself  the  office  of  the  tourists'  censor  morum,  I 
fail  to  see  much  difference  between  cutting  one's  name  on 
the  apex  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  which  every  traveller  of 
taste  would  strongly  deprecate,  and  inscribing  it  on  the 
Livre  des  Voyageurs  of  the  cliff  of  Abusir. 

There  are  few  views  which  impress  the  spectator  as  does 
the  grand  prospect  from  the  semicircular  platform  which 
forms  the  summit  of  the  rock.  Looking  down  on  one  side 
is  the  sunless  and  eddying  Nile,  studded  with  black  shining 
rocks,  dividing  the  river  into  endless  channels,  —  these 
being  the  rapids  known  as  the  Second  Cataract;  the  east- 
ern bank  is  a  wild  jumble  of  black  rocks  and  boulders,  the 
debris  brought  down  in  high  flood.  The  absence  of  any 
sign  of  habitation  intensifies  the  sensation  of  wild  desola- 
tion and  awful  grandeur.  In  the  distance,  too,  misty  blue 
mountains  conceal  Dongola,  some  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  south.  Turning  round  and  looking  westward,  the 
view  is  even  more  impressive.  Again  I  borrow  Dr.  Conan 
Doyle's  admirable  bit  of  word-painting : 

"  It  was  a  view  which,  when  once  seen,  must  always  haunt  the 
mind.  Such  an  expanse  of  savage  and  unrelieved  desert  might  be 
part  of  some  cold  and  burned-out  planet,  rather  than  of  this  fertile 


THE    FIRST    TO    THE    SECOND    CATARACT.         311 

and  bountiful  earth.  Away  and  away  it  stretched,  to  die  into  a 
soft,  violet  haze  in  the  extremist  distance.  In  the  foreground  the 
sand  was  of  a  bright  golden  yellow,  which  was  quite  dazzling  in  the 
sunshine;  but  beyond  this  golden  plain  lay  a  low  line  of  those 
black  slag-heaps,  with  yellow  sand-valleys  winding  between  them. 
These  in  their  turn  were  topped  by  higher  and  more  fantastic  hills, 
and  these  by  others,  peeping  over  each  other's  shoulders  until  they 
blended  with  that  distant  violet  haze.  None  of  these  hills  were  of 
any  height,  —  a  few  hundred  feet  at  the  most,  —  but  their  savage, 
saw-toothed  crests,  and  their  steep  scarps  of  sun-baked  stone,  gave 
them  a  fierce  character  of  their  own." 

A  few  miles  south  of  Abu  Sir,  some  excavations,  cleverly 
executed  by  a  detachment  of  English  engineers  under  Major 
Lyons,  have  brought  to  light  an  interesting  temple  of 
respectable  antiquity  even  for  Egypt.  It  is  at  least  as 
old  as  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  for  inscriptions  prove  that 
it  was  restored  by  Thotmes  III.  This  monarch's  name,  it 
will  be  noticed,  appeared  in  stelae  and  other  inscriptions 
more  frequently  than  that  of  any  other  sovereign,  not  even 
excepting  the  name  of  Rameses  the  Great. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

RECENT   EGYPTOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES. 

THE  most  important  fields  of  research  of  the  Egypt 
Exploration  Fund  (the  leading  Egyptological  Society 
of  Great  Britain  and  America),  since  1890,  have  been  Dar- 
El-Bahari  (Thebes)  and  Beni-Hassan.  Several  seasons' 
continuous  work  was  devoted  to  these  temples  and  the 
Beni-Hassan  Tombs. 

The  operations  of  this  society  are  characterised  by  great 
thoroughness  and  scientific  zeal,  and  are  conducted  with  an 
elaborated  conscientiousness  which  is  not  always  appreci- 
ated at  its  full  value  by  the  ordinary  tourist,  who  is 
naturally  inclined  to  give  greater  credit  to  the  more  prac- 
tical and  less  technical  explorations  of  the  Egyptological 
Department  of  the  Egyptian  Government.  But  the  aims 
of  these  two  bodies  are  different.  The  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund  is  a  purely  scientific  society.  It  is  supported  by  ar- 
chaeologists and  antiquarians,  and  their  researches  are  under- 
taken for  the  benefit  of  Egyptologists  rather  than  Egyptian 
travellers  and  students;  and  the  exhaustive  reports  the 
society  publishes  annually  are  learned  monographs,  "  cavi- 
are to  the  general,"  rather  than  popular  descriptive  hand- 
books. 

Yet  harmonious  relations  are  preserved  between  the  two 
bodies,  of  which  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund  may  be  reck- 
oned the  pioneer.  The  latter  gives  prominence  to  re- 
searches and  excavations  of  sites  likely  to  prove  of 
scientific    interest,    while    the    Government    Department 


RECENT    EGYPTOLOGICAL    DISCOVERIES.  313 

chiefly  devotes  its  attention  to  preserving  and  restoring 
the  famous  monuments  and  temples  which  attract  the 
ordinary  visitor. 

During  the  last  four  winters  the  Exploration  Fund  have 
been  carrying  on  extensive  excavations  at  Thebes,  with  the 
view  of  thoroughly  clearing  out  the  wonderful  Temple  of 
Queen  Hatasu.  In  the  chapter  on  Ancient  Thebes  and 
its  Monuments  this  temple  is  briefly  referred  to,  but  this 
account  may  be  supplemented  by  the  admirable  and  succinct 
description  of  M.  Naville,  who  was  responsible  for  the 
excavations : 

"  There  is  no  other  Egyptian  temple  known  to  us  which  is  built 
on  a  rising  succession  of  platforms ;  and  we  are  therefore  without 
comparisons  for  our  guidance  in  seeking  to  ascertain  how  the  archi- 
tect was  led  to  the  adoption  of  this  scheme.  To  some  extent  it  may 
have  been  suggested  to  him  by  the  nature  of  the  site  at  his  disposal, 
and  by  the  huge  steps  in  which  the  rock  of  the  foundations  descends 
to  the  plain.  What  was  the  distinctive  use  of  each  of  the  three 
platforms  on  which  the  temple  was  built  ?  Our  excavations  have 
proved  that  the  lowest  platform  was  treated  as  the  garden,  or  rather 
the  orchards,  of  the  temple,  and  that  the  trees  planted  in  it  were  ar- 
tificially watered.  But  the  central  and  most  extensive  of  the  plat- 
forms —  on  the  one  side  abutting  against  the  cliffs,  and  on  the  other 
supported  by  a  decorated  retaining  wall  —  seemed  to  have  been  a 
clear  space,  and  may  be  considered  as  corresponding  to  the  spacious 
colonnaded  courts  preceding  the  sanctuaries  in  temples  of  both  Pha- 
raohs and  Ptolemies." 

Neither  have  we  any  certainty  as  to  the  proposed  use  of 
the  four  unfinished  chambers  opening  on  to  the  colonnade 
on  the  northern  side  of  the  middle  platform.  Like  the 
lateral  chambers  at  Denderah  and  Edfu,  they  may  have 
been  intended  as  storerooms  for  the  incense  and  sacred 
oils,  and  for  the  garments  and  numerous  utensils  necessary 
to  performing  the  various  rites  of  the  complicated  Egyptian 
ritual.  Or,  like  the  court  of  the  altar  of  Harmakhis,  they 
may  have  been  sanctuaries,  dedicated  to  the  cult  of  divin- 


314  THE    CITY   OF   THE   CALIPHS. 

ities  more  especially  worshipped  in  other  parts  of  Egypt. 
But  the  more  plausible  supposition  is,  that  they  were 
meant  to  be  funerary  chapels  for  members  of  the  queen's 
family. 

Again,  the  similarity  of  Dar-El-Bahari  to  a  Greek  temple 
is  striking,  especially  to  the  visitor  coming  from  the  Ram- 
esseum,  when  first  he  catches  sight  of  the  long  row  of 
white  columns  at  the  base  of  the  rock  on  the  north  side. 
This  impression  is  borne  out,  not  only  by  the  often  noticed 
resemblance  between  the  fluted  columns  of  Hatasu  and 
those  of  the  Doric  order,  but  still  more  by  a  considera- 
tion of  certain  architectural  proportions,  and  of  the  relations 
between  column  and  architrave. 

At  Dar-El-Bahari  nothing  is  on  a  gigantic  scale,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  when  the  Egyptians  turned  aside  from 
the  style  which  was  here  applied  so  successfully,  in  fa- 
vour of  the  massive  architecture  of  Karnak  and  Medinet 
Abou,  they  deviated  from  the  path  which  would  have 
led  them  to  elegance,  and  preferred  the  majestic  and  the 
colossal. 

Tourists  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  clearing  of  this 
beautiful  structure  is  now  completed,  and  that  every  part 
of  the  temple  is  visible.  Many  interesting  discoveries  of 
sculptures  and  paintings  were  made,  among  them  some  of 
the  missing  fragments  of  the  famous  series  of  sculptures 
portraying  the  Punt  expedition  of  Queen  Hatasu.  These 
rather  point  to  the  probability  that  the  goal  of  this  expe- 
dition was  not,  as  is  usually  supposed,  a  part  of  Asia,  but 
that  Punt  was  a  portion  of  Africa. 

It  has  always  been  a  moot  point  with  Egyptologists  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  obelisks  were  transported  from 
Assouan  quarries  to  the  ancient  cities  of  the  Delta.  A 
remarkable  discovery  of  a  series  of  sculptures  at  Queen 
Hatasu's  Temple  by  M.  Naville  clears  up  this  disputed 
question.     The  obelisk  was  placed  on  a  huge  flat-bottomed 


RECENT    EGYPTOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES.  315 

raft  or  barge,  and  this  unwieldy  craft,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  cubits  long,  was  furnished  with  two  pairs  of  rudders. 
In  all  probability  the  season  of  high  Nile  was  chosen  for 
the  transport  of  an  obelisk,  when  not  only  would  the  navi- 
gation be  easier,  but  the  monolith  could  be  brought  in  the 
barge  nearer  to  the  temple  where  it  was  to  be  erected. 
The  barge  itself  was  merely  a  receptacle  for  the  obelisk, 
and  was  towed  by  three  parallel  groups  of  ten  boats,  each 
group  being  connected  with  the  barge  by  a  thick  cable.  In 
the  sculptures  the  rowers  are  represented  on  one  side  only; 
but  if  we  suppose  there  were  the  same  number  on  each 
side,  there  would  be  thirty-two  oarsmen  for  each  boat.  If 
we  add  the  reises,  the  officers,  and  the  helmsmen,  we  have 
a  grand  total  for  this  flotilla,  which  conveyed  an  obelisk 
from  Upper  Egypt  to  the  Delta,  of  over  one  thousand 
men! 

But  the  most  valuable  work  of  the  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund  within  recent  years  has  been  the  exhaustive  archaeo- 
logical survey  of  the  famous  rock-tombs  of  Beni-Hassan. 
The  results  of  this  stupendous  undertaking,  in  which 
thousands  of  wall  sculptures  and  inscriptions  were  con- 
scientiously transcribed  and  translated,  supplemented  and 
explained  by  an  enormous  number  of  plans,  diagrams, 
and  "  squeezes,"  are  to  be  found  in  the  magnum  opus  of 
the  society,  which  consists  of  four  folio  volumes.  Natu- 
rally, such  a  work  is  only  likely  to  be  seriously  read  by 
students;  but  ordinary  travellers,  who  are  about  to  visit 
these  remarkable  tombs,  will  do  well  to  consult  these  eru- 
dite and  beautifully  illustrated  works. 

Previous  to  1883,  when  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund 
was  founded,  the  historical  value  of  many  important  dis- 
coveries had  been  considerably  discounted,  owing  to  the 
haphazard  manner  in  which  excavations  and  archasological 
researches  had  been  undertaken ;  and  this  carelessness  must 
be  attributed  to  the  insufficient  supervision  of  the  native 


316  THE   CITY   OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

diggers  by  the  Cairo  Museum  authorities,  who,  in  most 
sites,  had  the  monopoly  of  research.  For  instance,  the 
most  valuable  objects  discovered  near  Abydos  some  thirty 
years  ago  were  carted  off  wholesale  to  Cairo  without  any 
record  being  kept  of  the  position  or  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  were  found.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  consular 
agents,  who  in  the  days  of  Ismail  were  little  more  than 
"protected"  dealers,  are  as  responsible  for  this  waste  of 
the  precious  relics  of  ancient  Egyptian  civilisation  as  are 
the  regular  dealers  and  unscrupulous  curio-hunting  travel- 
lers. 

For  instance,  in  the  wonderful  and  almost  sensational 
discoveries  of  Mariette,  certainly  the  most  zealous  and  in- 
defatigable explorer  and  excavator  of  all  workers  in  the 
field  of  Egyptological  research,  there  was  a  frightful  waste 
of  scientific  material.  The  results,  no  doubt,  were  mag- 
nificent, as  the  most  casual  inspection  of  the  galleries  in 
the  Cairo  Museum  clearly  shows ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  excavations  were  conducted  in  a  decidedly  unscientific 
and  unmethodical  manner,  the  only  aim  being  to  get  the 
"finds"  transported  as  quickly  as  possible  to  the  Cairo 
Museum,  only  the  most  hasty  and  superficial  notes  being 
made  on  the  spot.  Within  recent  years  excavating  has 
been  carried  on  more  intelligently,  with  a  greater  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  each  record,  and  with  accurate  cata- 
loguing, without  which  the  most  important  discoveries  from 
the  dealer's  point  of  view  have  little  value  in  the  eye  of 
scholars  and  archaeologists. 

The  discoveries  at  Naukratis,  an  ancient  Greek  settle- 
ment of  the  seventh  century  b.  c,  are  of  peculiar  interest 
to  art  students.  This  ancient  site  is  just  beyond  the  native 
village  of  Neqrash  (evidently  a  corruption  of  the  ancient 
name),  a  few  miles  from  Tel-El-Barud,  a  station  on  the 
Cairo  and  Alexandria  Railway.  Researches  here  have 
shown  us  the  life  of  the  early  Greek  settlers,  who  founded 


RECENT   EGYPTOLOGICAL    DISCOVERIES.  317 

the  city  in  the  time  of  Psammetikos,  about  660  b.  c.  The 
place  was  of  great  commercial  importance  till  the  rise  of 
Alexandria  eclipsed  its  fame.  Professor  Petrie  brought 
away  from  the  mounds  of  rubbish  a  large  collection  of 
Greek  vases  and  statuettes,  many  of  which  can  now  be 
seen  in  the  British  Museum. 

Another  important  work  by  Professor  Petrie  was 
the  identification  of  the  site  of  Pithom,  the  famous 
treasure-city  which  the  Israelites  built  for  Rameses  the 
Great,  in  the  mounds  of  Tel-El-Maskhuta  in  the  Wady 
Tamilat. 

One  of  the  most  startling  discoveries  in  the  whole  field 
of  Egyptian  research  was  that  of  the  Temple  of  Sneferu, 
the  first  king  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  and  the  oldest 
sovereign  of  whom  any  remains  are  known.  This  was 
discovered  buried  some  forty  feet  beneath  the  surface, 
by  the  accumulation  of  desert  sand  and  rubbish  of 
several  thousand  years,  close  to  the  famous  "False 
Pyramid"  of  Medum,  itself  the  very  oldest  dated  monu- 
ment in  Egypt. 

An  extraordinary  circumstance  in  the  discovery  of  this 
almost  prehistoric  temple  was  that  it  was  found  absolutely 
perfect,  and  even  the  roof  was  entire  and  uninjured. 

«  The  chances  against  the  oldest  dated  temple  in  the  world  being 
quite  uninjured,"  remarks  Professor  Petrie,  "might  seem  beyond 
hope ;  yet,  strangely,  it  still  remains.  Of  course  it  needed  to  be  very 
fully  buried  again  to  preserve  it  from  destruction  by  the  present 
natives ;  and  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  not  be  uncovered 
until  better  security  is  insured  for  Egyptian  monuments.  The 
priceless  early  tombs,  near  the  Pyramids,  have  been  battered  to 
pieces  where  the  boys  can  reach,  and  blocks  taken  away  for  build- 
ing, thus  destroying  some  of  the  finest  sculptures  known;  and 
though  these  were  all  carefully  buried  to  prevent  injury  a  few  years 
ago,  some  traveller  has  ruthlessly  uncovered  them  again  for  destruc- 
tion. Nothing  can  be  left  exposed  in  Egypt ;  it  must  be  either 
deeply  buried   or  else   removed,   to   a   museum,  if   not   constantly 


318  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

guarded.     The  Pyramid  can  be  easily  visited  from  Waita  station, 
about  five  miles  distant." 

Tel-El- Amarna,  some  fifty  miles  north  of  Assiout,  is 
the  site  of  several  interesting  discoveries.  The  great  tem- 
ple of  the  "heretic  king,"  Khu-En-Aten,  was  discovered 
by  Lepsius,  and  systematically  explored  and  described  by 
Professor  Petrie,  during  the  winter  of  1891-2.  The  fame 
of  Tel-El-Amarna  as  a  field  of  research  dates  from  the 
finding  of  the  famous  cuneiform  inscriptions,  of  which  a 
short  account  has  already  been  given  in  the  chapter  de- 
scribing the  principal  antiquities  from  Cairo  to  the  First 
Cataract. 

"  There,  besides  the  well-known  tombs,  a  large,  painted  pavement 
of  the  palace  has  been  found  in  this  ancient  town ;  and  it  is  now 
well  preserved  in  a  building,  and  accessible  to  visitors.  The  inter- 
est in  it  lies  in  the  naturalistic  style  of  the  painting,  and  the  link  in 
taste  and  design  which  it  shows  to  the  Mykensean  Greek  work.  In 
the  rubbish  heaps  of  the  palace  waste  were  found  fragments  of 
many  hundreds  of  prehistoric  Greek  vases,  of  the  '^gean'  style, 
apparently  all  of  Rhodian  and  Cypriote  sources,  suggesting  that 
they  came  by  way  of  the  Syrian  coast ;  whereas,  the  ^gean  vases 
of  this  same  age,  from  Gurob,  belong  to  the  Peloponnesian  forms, 
pointing  to  a  trade  along  the  African  shores.  The  mass  of  remains, 
in  a  place  which  was  only  occupied  for  twenty  or  thirty  years, 
gives  the  most  certain  dating  of  this  style  in  Greece  to  the  four- 
teenth century  b.  c,  and  thus  fixes  an  epoch  in  the  prehistory  of 
Europe." 

Side  by  side  with  the  more  scientific  work  of  archaeolog- 
ical research  undertaken  by  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund 
is  the  equally  important,  but  more  mechanical,  work  of 
the  Egyptian  Government,  which  is  mainly  confined  to  the 
clearing  of  rubbish  or  unearthing  the  buried  portions  of 
the  great  monuments  and  temples  of  the  Upper  Nile,  which 
may  be  considered  as  the  great  "show"  places  for  travellers 
and  tourists.  The  Karnak  and  Philae  temples  have  been 
for  many  years  the  site  of  extensive  excavations,  nearly  all 


RECENT    EGYPTOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES.  319 

the  money  from  the  Tourist  Fund  being  devoted  to  the 
work.  The  Philae  temples  have  now  been  completely 
cleared,  and  the  able  and  thorough  manner  in  which  the 
work  has  been  done  under  Captain  Lyon's  superintendence 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  extract  from  Lord  Cromer's 
last  report : 

"  The  debris  has  been  carefully  removed  from  the  whole  of  the 
area  enclosed  by  the  two  colonnades,  as  well  as  from  the  open  spaces 
to  the  south  of  the  colonnades.  The  site  of  a  temple  of  Augustus  at 
the  north  of  the  island,  and  a  small  unfinished  temple  near  the  Kiosk, 
were  also  excavated.  Subsequently  the  Coptic  village,  which  covers 
three  quarters  of  the  island,  was  laid  bare,  the  walls,  stairways,  and 
doors  of  the  dwellings  being  left,  while  the  streets  and  interiors  of 
the  houses  were  cleared  from  the  rubbish  of  the  fallen  roofs  and 
walls  which  encumbered  them." 

Then,  in  addition  to  these  important  works,  the  Great 
Temple  of  Isis  has  had  its  crypts  cleared  of  the  rubbish 
with  which  they  were  choked,  and  the  columns  of  the  east- 
ern colonnade  freed  from  the  debris  of  a  ruined  Coptic 
village  which  had  formerly  buried  that  portion  of  the 
temple.  All  the  operations  have  been  most  intelligently 
undertaken,  and  the  aim  has  been  to  restore  rather  than 
to  repair^  a  distinction  which  antiquarians  will  appreciate. 
The  director  of  the  excavations  took  the  opportunity  of 
carefully  examining  the  foundation  of  the  temple,  when  it 
was  found  that  the  foundation  masonry,  which  in  one  por- 
tion had  been  carried  down  to  a  depth  below  the  present 
high  Nile  level,  was  in  excellent  condition,  and  that  there 
were  no  signs  of  any  settlement  of  the  soil.  A  great  por- 
tion of  the  Temple  of  Isis  is,  indeed,  founded  upon  the 
granite  rock. 

Indirectly,  the  Upper  Nile  Reservoir  scheme  alluded  to 
in  a  former  chapter,  which  was  so  bitterly  opposed  by 
archaeologists,  has  been  the  means  of  promoting  Egypto- 
logical research  in  Philae;  for  the  Government  surveyors, 


820  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

when  excavating  in  connection  with  this  reservoir  project, 
have  cleared  up  several  temples,  including  one  of  the 
Emperor  Octavius  on  the  north  of  the  island. 

At  Karnak,  also,  important  work  has  been  done.  All 
the  money  raised  by  the  Government  tax  (levied  on  visitors 
to  the  ancient  monuments  of  the  Upper  Nile)  during  last 
winter  (1896-97)  was  devoted  to  the  great  work  of  clear- 
ing the  Karnak  temples.  "  Under  the  superintendence,"  to 
quote  again  the  Government  report, "  of  M.  de  Morgan,  great 
progress  has  been  made  during  the  last  year  in  the  work  of 
preserving  these  temples.  A  large  amount  of  earth,  which 
filled  the  great  courtyard  and  the  Hall  of  Columns,  has 
been  removed  ;  the  bases  of  the  columns  have  been  cleared 
from  contact  with  the  salted  earth,  and  repaired  with 
cement.  The  fallen  stones  have  been  numbered  and  col- 
lected, with  a  view  possibly  to  their  being  replaced  at  some 
future  time." 

In  the  Ghizeh  Pyramid  Plateau  we  reach  a  site  known, 
of  course,  to  every  tourist.  Here  it  might  naturally  be 
supposed  that  systematic  explorations  had  exhausted  the 
potential  wealth  of  antiquities.  Unfortunately,  however, 
this  district  —  of  the  highest  archaeological  interest  —  has 
never  been  properly  worked,  owing  to  the  Government 
digging-monopoly ;  and  though  there  is  a  vast  amount  to  be 
done  in  the  great  district  of  the  Pyramid  and  Memphis, 
yet,  as  Professor  Petrie  cynically  remarks,  "  only  the  in- 
adequate work  of  the  Government  Department  and  the 
plundering  by  natives  is  allowed,  and  all  real  scientific 
work  is  forbidden." 

At  the  Pyramid  of  Dahshur,  however,  at  the  southern  end 
of  this  extensive  necropolis,  some  excellent  work  has  been 
done  by  the  new  director  of  the  museum,  and  his  thorough 
and  capable  researches  have  resulted  in  a  most  valuable 
mine  of  tombs  being  brought  to  light.  The  magnificent 
sets  of  jewellery  found  here,  now  in  the  Cairo  Museum, 


RECENT    EGYPTOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES.  321 

are  familiar  to  every  traveller  in  Egypt.  "  The  exquisite 
delicacy,  skill,  and  taste  of  this  work  surpasses  all  that  is 
yet  known.  The  pectorals  are  formed  by  soldering  walls 
of  gold  on  to  a  base  plate,  which  is  elaborately  chased  with 
details  on  the  back.  Between  these  walls  or  ribs  of  gold 
are  inserted  minutely  cut  stones,  —  cornelian,  lazuli,  and 
felspar,  —  to  give  the  vari-coloured  design.  In  this,  and 
in  the  beads  of  gold,  the  astounding  minuteness  of  the 
work  and  perfect  delicacy  of  execution  exceed  the  limits 
of  mere  naked-eye  inspection." 

To  come  to  the  latest  discoveries,  the  winter  of  1896-7 
has  been  marked  by  some  remarkable  finds.  The  dis- 
covery of  some  extraordinary  fifth-dynasty  tombs  at  De- 
shasheh,  by  Professor  Petrie,  where  a  large  number  of 
skeletons  was  found  which  point  to  a  method  of  burial 
anterior  to  the  age  of  mummies,  has  already  been  referred 
to.  In  addition  to  these  necrological  finds  were  some 
objects  of  great  artistic  interest,  including  a  remarkably 
well-executed  portrait-statue  of  a  certain  royal  priest  called 
Neukheftka,  the  work  of  some  fifth-dynasty  sculptor,  which 
shows  that  even  at  this  early  period  the  Egyptian  artists 
had  attained  considerable  technical  skill.  Some  curious 
baskets  of  palm-fibre  were  also  found,  evidently  used  for 
carrying  away  the  soil  from  the  excavated  graves.  It  is 
curious  that  baskets  of  a  similar  pattern  are  still  used  in 
India  by  women  labourers  for  carrying  away  earth  in  rail- 
way cuttings  and  other  public  works. 

In  the  same  winter  took  place  the  sensational  discovery, 
by  Messrs.  Grenfell  and  Hunt  of  the  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  at  Oxyrhncus,  some  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
south  of  Cairo  on  the  edge  of  the  Libyan  desert,  a  few 
miles  from  the  Nile,  of  a  second-century  papyrus  con- 
taining some  remarkable  sayings  attributed  to  our 
Lord  (Logia  Jesou).  This  document  has  aroused  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  interest  among  theological  students. 


322  THE    CITY    OF    THE    CALIPHS. 

and  has  given  rise  to  many  problems.  Some  critics 
consider  that  this  papyrus  is  a  fragment  of  the  well- 
known,  but  of  course  non-canonical,  "  Gospel  according 
to  the  Egyptians." 

A  more  satisfactory  view,  though  not  free  from  difficul- 
ties, is  that  this  fragment  is  what  it  professes  to  be, — 
a  collection  of  some  of  our  Lord's  sayings.  These,  judging 
from  their  archaic  tone  and  framework,  were  put  together 
not  later  than  the  end  of  the  first  or  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  they  embody 
a  tradition  independent  of  those  which  have  taken  shape 
in  our  Canonical  Gospels. 

The  above  is,  of  course,  the  merest  outline  of  the  more 
noteworthy  results  undertaken  within  recent  years  in  the 
field  of  Egyptian  exploration.  The  able  and  suggestive 
summary  of  Professor  Petrie,  to  whom  I  am  much  indebted 
for  the  information  in  this  superficial  sketch,  will  form  a 
fitting  conclusion  to  this  chapter : 

"The  general  result  of  all  this  activity  of  recent  years  is  that 
Egypt  has  appeared  in  far  closer  relation  to  other  ancient  lands. 
Towards  the  East  an  entirely  new  view  is  opened  by  the  cuneiform 
letters  between  Syria  and  Egypt ;  for  no  one  had  dreamed  that  an 
active  correspondence  in  that  writing  had  been  going  on  in  the  four- 
teenth century  b.  c.  in  Syria.  And  the  relations  shown  to  exist 
between  the  Egyptian  Power  and  the  various  princes  of  Syria  far 
exceeded  what  has  been  supposed. 

"  But  it  is  also  to  the  West  that  equally  unexpected  relations  have 
appeared.  Instead  of  looking  on  Egypt  as  an  isolated  factor  in  the 
world's  history,  standing  apart  from  all  else,  we  now  realise  that 
there  was  much  more  civiUsation  outside  of  it  than  had  been  sup- 
posed, and  that  it  was  in  pretty  close  relation  with  all  the  surround- 
ing countries.  The  earliest  light  on  the  South  European  peoples 
comes  from  the  Libyan  invaders,  who  conquered  Upper  Egypt  after 
the  sixth  dynasty.  The  connection  of  the  prehistoric  Cretan  civili- 
sation has  lately  been  brought  to  light,  each  link  of  which  points  to 
the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  as  an  age  of  intercourse.     The  con- 


RECENT    EGYPTOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES.  323 

(siderable  intercourse  with  prehistoric  Greece  in  the  eighteenth 
dynasty  is  now  almost  every  year  more  fully  cleared  up.  The  early 
historic  settlements  of  Naukratis  and  Daphnse  have  opened  a  new 
chapter  in  Greek  history,  and  given  some  of  the  actual  links  between 
Egyptian  and  early  Greek  art.  And  all  these  stages  were  absolutely 
unknown  and  unguessed  as  lately  as  eleven  years  ago,  when  nothing 
from  the  West  was  known  in  Egypt  before  Ptolemaic  times.  It  is 
as  new  a  world  of  history  as  the  discoveries  of  Layard  or  Schlie- 
mann,  and  may  well  encourage  us  to  hope  for  what  the  next  ten 
years  may  yield  to  those  who  employ  accurate  research  for  opening 
up  the  buried  story  of  the  life  of  man." 


INDEX. 


Aah-hetep,  Queen,  14. 

Aahmes,  founder  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty  of  Egypt,  13,  14 ;  mummy 
of,  159. 

Abbas,  founder  of  the  Abbasside  dy- 
nasty, 151. 

Abbas,  successor  to  Mehemet  Ali, 
55,  245. 

Abbasside  dynasty,  the,  150, 151. 

Abu  Simbel,  famous  rock-temple  of, 
305,  306,  308;  four  colossi  of,  306, 
307. 

Abusir,  pulpit-rock  of,  309;  excava- 
tions at,  311. 

Abydos,  traditional  burial-place  of 
Osiris,  9,  270,  271;  tablet  of,  271; 
most  valuable  discoveries  here  car- 
ried to  Cairo,  316. 

Actium,  battle  of,  between  Octavius 
and  Antony,  40 ;  its  results,  41. 

Africa,  first  complete  circumnaviga- 
tion of  its  continent,  20. 

Ahmed,  the  tomb-robber,  162, 163. 

Alexander  the  Great,  founder  of  the 
Ptolemaic  empire  in  Egypt,  8; 
subjugates  the  Persians,  20;  his 
Egyptian  campaign  one  of  his 
most  striking  achievements,  22- 
24 ;  his  death,  24. 

Alexandria,  capital  of  Egypt  founded 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  24;  be- 
sieged by  Euergetes  II.,  38;  An- 
tony's celebration  of  a  Roman 
triumph  at,  39 ;  bombarded  by  Eng- 
lish fleet,  57 ;  infection  in,  81 ;  and 


the  Nile  Delta,  90-104 ;  aspects  of, 
as  approached  from  the  sea,  90 ;  few 
traces  left  of  her  ancient  glory,  91 ; 
ignored  by  tourists  and  neglected 
by  antiquarians,  92;  peculiar 
shape  of,  93;  legend  accounting 
for  its  site,  93;  her  fine  harbour, 
94;  modern  aspect  of,  created  by 
Mehemet  Ali,  95 ;  best  view  of,  98, 
99;  can  boast  of  few  "  lions,"  100; 
its  Serapeum  and  library,  101;  its 
Mohammedan  cemetery,  102;  the 
cemeteries  of  Elmeks,  103;  a  city 
of  sites  rather  than  of  sights,  103; 
its  mosques,  and  convent  of  St. 
Mark,  103,  104;  best  route  to  Egypt 
via,  119-121 ;  its  museum,  167. 

Alphabet,  Phoenician  origin  of,  can- 
not be  substantiated,  6 ;  probably 
originated  in  Egypt,  6. 

Amen,  worship  of,  16. 

Amen-Em-Het,  12,  266,  267 ;  tomb  of, 
at  Assouan,  300. 

Amen-hetep,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  15,  16. 

Amru,  conqueror  of  Egypt,  and 
builder  of  Old  Cairo,  42;  mosque 
named  for,  at  Cairo,  139, 182-184. 

Antiochus,  fights  battle  of  Raphia 
with  Ptolemy  IV.,  34-36. 

Antony,  Mark,  his  relations  with 
Cleopatra,  39,  40. 

Apepa  II.,  the  Pharaoh  who  raised 
Joseph  to  high  rank,  14. 

Apis,  the  sacred  bull,  cult  of,  9;  city 
of,  215-226 ;  mausoleum  of,  218,  219 ; 
common   belief    concerning,    219, 


326 


326 


INDEX. 


220;  divine  honours  paid  to,  220, 
221,  229. 

Arabi,  Egyptian  minister  of  war, 
rebellion  of,  57. 

"Arabian  Nights,"  quoted,  53. 

Art  Journal,  quoted,  146. 

Arsinoe,  wife  of  Ptolemy  Fhiladel- 
phus,  30,  31. 

Assouan,  health-resort  in  Egypt,  114, 
115,  250 ;  her  quarries  the  source  of 
many  Egyptian  obelisks,  280,  281, 
301;  situation  of,  295,  296;  great 
engineering  work  to  be  done  at, 
296,  297 ;  its  excellent  climate,  297, 
298;  has  a  future  inviting  to  the 
tourist  and  health-seeker,  299; 
tombs  of,  300;  ancient  process  of 
quarrying  at,  301 ;  island  of  Philas 
at,  301-303;  first  cataract  in  the 
Nile  here,  303;  how  obelisks  were 
transported  from,  314,  315. 

Auletes  (Ptolemy  XIII.),  his  charac- 
ter described  by  Cicero,  39. 

Ayyubides  dynasty,  the,  founded  by 
Saladin,  46,  150,  151. 


BaalbeC,  231. 

Baedeker,  quoted,  155,  264,  265. 

Baker,  Gen.  Valentine,  77. 

Balm  of  Gilead,  the,  Coptic  tradition 
of,  234. 

Barrage,  the,  great  dam  on  the  Nile, 
71,  242,  244-246. 

Bebars  (Sultan),  character  and  reign 
of,  50-53. 

Bell,  Moberly,  quoted,  66,  164,  165, 
180. 

Belzoni,  288,  307. 

Beni-Hassan,  rock-tombs  of,  262-267, 
315. 

Boulag,  port  of,  236,  237. 

Brugsch  Bey,  an  authority  on  Egyp- 
tian history,  9, 163,  228,  229. 

Bubastis,  12. 

Burckhardt  (Sheik  Ibrahim),  154. 

Byzantine  empire,  42. 


CaBsar,  his  relations  with  Cleopatra, 
39. 

CaBsarion,  reputed  son  of  Caesar  and 
Cleopatra,  39. 

Cairo  (the  "  City  of  the  Caliphs  ") : 
one  of  the  dozen  most  interesting 
cities  of  the  globe,  1;  compara- 
tively modern,  and  historically 
unimportant,  1;  distinctively  an 
Oriental  city  in  its  typical  charac- 
teristics, 2;  Europeanised  by  Me- 
hemet  Ali  and  Ismail,  but  still  a 
magnificent  field  of  study,  2 ;  full  of 
picturesque  associations  connected 
with  the  age  of  the  Mameluke  Sul- 
tans, 2;  ignored  by  most  of  the 
books  on  Egypt,  2;  offers  richest 
material  for  the  sketch-book,  2 ;  its 
history  goes  no  farther  back  than 
mediasval  times,  5;  is  wholly  a 
Mohammedan  creation,  5;  its  two 
periods  of  history  under  Arab  and 
Turkish  rule,  5;  improved  and 
fortified  by  Saladin,  42-44 ;  its  orig- 
inal name,  43;  its  three  creators, 
45;  what  the  Mameluke  Sultans 
did  for  it,  48 ;  scheme  for  thorough 
drainage  in,  81, 82 ;  at  the  time  of  the 
Suez  Canal  inauguration  ceremo- 
nies, 113.  As  a  resort  for  invalids, 
114-121;  malarial  in  November, 
December,  and  January,  115;  cli- 
matic conditions  of,  117,  118.  In 
its  social  aspect,  122-131 ;  its  hoteLs, 
123-126,  127,  128;  an  aristocratic 
winter  residence,  128 ;  three  classes 
of  visitors  at,  129;  bicycling  in, 
130;  the  official  functions  at,  130, 
131.  Bazaars  and  street-life  of, 
132-138;  its  two  great  thorough- 
fares, 132,  133;  how  to  make  pur- 
chases in,  135,  136;  all  races  and 
nationalities  to  be  seen  in,  136, 
137.  Mosques  of,  139-148;  more 
than  three  hundred  in,  140.  Tombs 
of  the  Caliphs  at,  149-156;  never 
properly  the  seat  of  the  Caliphs, 


INDEX. 


32T 


149,  150.  Its  National  Museum, 
157-168;  origin,  scope,  and  value 
summed  up  by  Murray's  Hand- 
book, 158 ;  a  vast  treasure-house  of 
early  Egyptian  civilisation,  159; 
remarkable  paintings,  and  Hall  of 
Jewels,  160;  the  Museum  of  Ara- 
bian art,  167,  168.  The  Acropolis 
of,  169-180;  built  of  stones  from 
the  Great  Pyramid,  169;  most 
striking  landmark  of  the  city,  176 ; 
view  from,  179.  Old  Cairo  and  the 
Coptic  churches,  181-190 ;  the  Egyp- 
tian Babylon,  181,  182;  architec- 
tural interest  and  characteristics 
of  churches  described,  184,  185. 
Side-shows  of,  191-201 ;  most  popu- 
lar, 193;  public  festivals,  197 ;  na- 
tive weddings,  198-200;  degraded 
position  of  women,  200,  201.  Minor 
excursions  from,  235-248 ;  rich  field 
for  artists,  235, 236 ;  its  trading-port 
of  Boulag,  236,  237 ;  its  royal  resi- 
dences, 247,  248;  an  expensive 
health-resort,  249 ;  from,  to  Thebes 
on  the  Nile,  261-276. 

Caliphs,  the,  rule  of,  in  Egypt,  42- 
54;  different  capitals  of  the,  46, 
149,  150;  the  title  loosely  used, 
149;  de  facto  and  dejure,  150, 151. 

Cambyses,  king  of  Persia,  invades 
and  conquers  Egypt,  20,  22;  his 
brutal  outrages  of  Egyptian  gods, 
23,  107,  181;  slaughters  the  sacred 
bull,  221,  222. 

Campbell's  Tomb,  210. 

Canopus,  Decree  of,  31,  32,  161. 

Capitulations,  the,  privileges  granted 
to  foreigners  in  Egypt,  58,  63. 

Cemetery  of  cats,  the,  267. 

Cheops,  10;  pyramid  of,  202;  statis- 
tics concerning,  204,  205;  ascent 
of,  206,  207 ;  raison  d'etre  of,  209. 

Chephren,  10;  statue  of,  159,  160; 
pyramid  of,  207;  builder  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Sphinx,  214. 

Chess,  origin  of  the  game  of,  223, 
224. 


Cicero,  his  estimate  of  Ptolemy 
XIII.,  39. 

City  of  the  Caliphs  (see  Cairo). 

Cleopatra,  her  relations  with  Caesar 
and  Antony,  39;  her  flight  after 
the  battle  of  Actium,  and  her 
death,  40,  41;  attempts  to  escape 
by  a  canal  between  the  Red  Sea 
and  Mediterranean,  108;  her  por- 
trait in  relief  on  the  temple  of  Den- 
derah,  273,  274. 

Commission  for  the  Preservation  of 
Arabic  Monuments,  the,  141,  178. 

Constantinople,  a  hybrid  city  in 
comparison  with  Cairo,  5 ;  its  chief 
temple  dedicated  to  a  Christian 
saint,  5;  conquered  by  the  Turks, 
54 ;  Conference  of,  85 ;  most  cosmo- 
politan city  in  Europe,  136 ;  titular 
city  of  the  Caliphs,  150;  menaced 
by  the  troops  of  Mehemet  Ali,  173. 

Continental,  the  (hotel),  114,  123, 
125. 

Cook,  the  Messrs.,  their  tourist- 
steamers  on  the  Nile,  252 ;  the  ad- 
vantages they  offer  to  the  Nile 
traveller,  256-258 ;  their  Handbook 
quoted,  307. 

Copts,  the,  and  their  churches  in 
Cairo,  186-188. 

Cornelia,  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  re- 
fuses to  be  queen  of  Egypt,  37. 

Cotton-plant,  the,  one  of  the  most 
lucrative  articles  of  commerce  in 
Egypt,  234. 

"  Crescent  and  the  Cross,"  the, 
quoted,  288,  289,  302. 

Cromer,  Lord,  his  report  on  Egyptian 
drainage,  71,  79,  247, 319. 

D 

Dahabiyeh,  the,  native  sailing-boats 
on  the  Nile,  pleasures  and  expense 
of,  250,  251,  255-257. 

Damietta,  94,  105,  106. 

Davey,  Richard,  quoted,  142. 

Denderah,  Nile  city,  Ptolemaic  archi- 
tecture here,  272-275. 


328 


INDEX. 


Dervishes,  Howling   and  Twirling, 

the,  193-196. 
Deshasheh,  important  "  finds  "  made 

here,  321. 
Dion,  his  description  of  Cleopatra's 

death,  41. 
Doyle,  Conan,  quoted,  305,  309,  310, 

311. 


Edfu,  temple  of,  276. 

Education  in  ancient  times  B.C.,  from 
the  Euphrates  to  the  Nile,  269. 

Edwards,  Miss  A.  B.,  quoted,  15, 
212,  230,  231,  261,  263,  271,  285,  286, 
294,  295,  306. 

Egypt :  cradle  of  the  oldest  civilisa- 
tion and  culture,  1 ;  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  tourist  and  sight- 
seer, but  of  low  rank  among  semi- 
civilised  countries,  3;  national 
importance  of,  4;  great  highway 
between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
hemispheres,  4;  under  the  Pha- 
raohs, 5-21;  all  literature,  ancient 
and  modern,  indirectly  due  to  her 
ancient  civilisation,  5, 6 ;  the  cradle 
of  the  alphabet,  6;  her  history 
fossilised  in  monuments,  6;  the 
cardinal  fact  in  her  history  one  of 
foreign  invasions  and  conquests,  6, 
7;  has  preserved  her  racial  con- 
tinuity notwithstanding,  7;  little 
known  of  her  prehistoric  history, 
7 ;  her  first  earthly  kings,  7 ;  schol- 
ars disagree  as  to  the  origin  of  her 
people,  7,  8 ;  the  five  principal  di- 
visions of  her  history,  8,  9 ;  dates 
in  her  chronology  only  approxi- 
mate, 9,  10;  her  political  centre 
shifted  under  different  kings,  11, 
12 ;  her  twelfth  dynasty  an  impor- 
tant period,  12 ;  dark  period  of,  12 ; 
invaded  by  nomad  tribes  of  Syria, 
13;  expansion  of  her  national 
spirit,  14;  most  popular  period  of 
her  history,  16,  17;  enters  on  the 
stage  of  disruption,  19;  a  satrapy 


of  the  Persian  empire,  20,  21;  un- 
der the  first  Ptolemy  (Soter),  21, 
24 ;  easily  conquered,  but  perpetu- 
ally revolting,  22;  power  of  her 
priesthood,  23 ;  her  people  welcome 
Alexander  as  their  deliverer  from 
Persian  tyranny,  23;  her  history 
during  the  three  hundred  years  of 
Ptolemaic  rule  difficult  to  unravel, 
32 ;  under  Roman  rule,  38 ;  under 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  39,  40 ;  un- 
der Arab  rule  (the  Caliphs),  42-54; 
picturesque  period  of  her  history, 
42 ;  her  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
Saracenic  rulers,  45;  her  history 
uninteresting  from  the  Ottoman 
conquest  till  the  French  occupa- 
tion, 54 ;  the  making  of,  55-89 ;  her 
leaning  towards  "Western  civili- 
sation under  Mehemet  Ali,  Said, 
and  Ismail,  55,  56;  her  financial 
embarrassment,  56;  rebellion  of 
Arabi,  57;  England  in,  57,60-67; 
hampered  by  the  Great  Powers, 
58-60,  66 ;  most  important  reforms 
of  England  in,  63  et  seq.;  delicate 
diplomatic  relations  between  the 
two  governments,  64;  her  army 
disbanded,  65;  kind  and  wise 
action  of  English  officers,  66;  her 
finances  reorganised  by  England, 
67;  her  material  productiveness 
only  a  question  of  irrigation,  68, 
69;  Herodotus 's  epigram  concern- 
ing, 69 ;  two  systems  of  agriculture 
in,  and  why,  69,  70;  drainage,  71, 
246,  247 ;  proposed  reservoir  for  the 
upper  Nile  valley,  72,  319;  confi- 
dence of  the  people  in  the  English 
engineers,  73,  74;  unsatisfactory 
condition  of  the  courts  of  law,  75 
et  seq.;  police  system,  76,  77;  de- 
partment of  the  Interior,  77,  78; 
sanitation  and  sanitary  reform,  78- 
82;  education  and  legislation,  82- 
84 ;  attitude  of  England  in  her  pol- 
icy of  intervention,  84  et  seq.; 
French  her  official  language,  86. 


INDEX. 


329 


England's  withdrawal  from,  con- 
sidered, 87  et  seq.;  three  Egypts  to 
interest  the  traveller,  94 ;  climatol- 
ogy of,  116,  117,  119;  best  way  of 
reaching,  119-121 ;  her  ecclesiastical 
property,  how  vested,  142 ;  fanati- 
cism of  sects,  145 ;  methods  of  burial 
in,  165,  166 ;  under  Mehemet  Ali, 
170-175 ;  the  cry  of  "  Egypt  for  the 
Egyptians  "  impossible  of  realisa- 
tion, 175;  Christianity  established 
as  the  state  religion  of,  by  Theo- 
dosius,  186;  degraded  position  of 
woman,  200,  201 ;  pyramids  of,  202- 
214;  animal  worship  of,  219-221; 
her  most  ancient  object  of  worship, 
the  sun,  229 ;  modified  monotheism 
ascribed  to  her,  230 ;  destined  to  be 
the  granary  of  Europe,  242,  243 ;  her 
climatic  conditions  unfavourable 
to  textile  manufactures,  243;  pro- 
duces three  crops  annually,  247; 
as  a  health-resort,  250,  251 ;  state  of 
education  in,  in  times  B.C.,  269; 
architecture,  Ptolemaic  and  Pha- 
raonic,  272-276;  her  fifty-five  his- 
toric obelisks,  280,  281;  neglected 
by  the  poets,  284;  cost  of  winter- 
ing in,  290 ;  recent  discoveries  in, 
312-323. 

Egypt  Exploration  Fund  Society, 
its  important  work,  312  et  seq.; 
should  be  distinguished  from  the 
Egyptological  department  of  the 
Egyptian  Government,  312;  its 
work  at  Beni-Hassan,  315. 

Eiffel  Tower,  height  of,  204. 

Elamites,  the,  12. 

El-Azhar  University,  82. 

El-Makrizy,  Arab  historian,  53. 

El-Muizz,  first  of  the  Fatimite  dy- 
nasty, 43. 

El-Muizz-Ebek,  founder  of  the  Mame- 
luke dynasty,  49. 

Emin  Bey,  legend  of  his  escape  from 
the  slaughter  of  the  Mamelukes, 
176,  177. 

England  in  Egypt,  57,  60-67;  most 


important  reforms  of,  63  et  seq.; 
delicate  diplomatic  relations  be- 
tween the  two  governments,  64; 
reorganises  the  Egyptian  army, 
65,  66 ;  moral  and  educational  ser- 
vice of  her  ofl&cers  to  the  Egyptians, 
66;  reestablishes  Egyptian  finan- 
ces, 67;  important  work  of  drain- 
age, 71;  proposed  great  reservoir 
in  the  upper  Nile  valley,  72;  per- 
fection of  Irrigation  department, 
73;  department  of  Justice  and 
Police,  74  et  seq.;  mistakes  in  the 
police  system,  76,  77;  department 
of  the  Interior,  78;  Public  Health 
department,  78-82 ;  educational 
system,  and  government  schools, 
82,83;  legislative  reforms,  83,  84; 
her  policy  of  intervention  consid- 
ered, 84  et  seq.;  her  relations  with 
France,  85-87;  her  hostility  to 
the  Suez  Canal  project,  86,  111-113; 
her  withdrawal  must  be  gradual, 
87  et  seq.;  her  Public  Works  de- 
partment in,  her  one  great  apology 
for  being  there,  243. 

Epiphanes  (Ptolemy  V.),  deplorable 
state  of  affairs  under  his  rule,  38. 

Esarhaddon,  King  of  Assyria,  in- 
vades Egypt,  19. 

Esneh,  temple  of,  294, 295. 

Euergetes  I.,  31. 

Euergetes  II.,  the  ninth  Ptolemy, 
reigns  jointly  with  Philometer,  37 ; 
puts  to  death  the  infant  King  Neos, 
38;  his  death,  and  what  ensued, 
38-39. 


Fatima,  daughter  of  Mohammed,  46. 

Fatimite  dynasty,  the,  origin  of,  46 ; 
150. 

Fellaheen,  the,  make  good  soldiers 
when  intelligently  led,  65;  over- 
burdened by  taxation  under  Is- 
mail, 67 ;  their  confidence  in  the 
English  engineers,  73,  74;  filthy 
condition  of  their  huts,  80 ;  twenty- 


330 


INDEX. 


five  thousand  of,  work  on  the  Suez 
Canal,  112;  sliding  scale  of  their 
taxation,  189;  naturally  unfitted 
for  manufactures,  243,  244. 

Fergusson,  writer  on  architecture, 
quoted,  152,  263. 

Fostat  (old  Cairo),  founded  by  Amru, 
42,  181. 

Fraas,  Professor,  quoted,  241. 

France,  partner  of  England  in  Egypt, 
61,  62,  85-87 ;  encourages  Mehemet 
Ali,  173. 

Friday,  the  Mohammedan  Sabbath, 
145. 


Gebel  Abu  Faydah,  the  Nile  Pali- 
sades, 269. 

Ghawazee  dance,  the,  191,  192. 

Ghezireh  Palace,  the  (hotel),  114, 123, 
125, 126. 

Ghizeh,  pyramids  of,  202-214;  pla- 
teau of,  neglected  by  archaeolo- 
gists, 320. 

Gohar,  general  under  El-Muizz,  43. 

Gorst,  J.  L.,  78. 

Granville,  Lord,  memorable  des- 
patch of,  61,  62. 

Great  Powers,  the,  their  relation  to 
the  Egyptian  question,  87,  88;  in- 
tervene between  the  Porte  and 
Mehemet  Ali,  172-175. 


Harris  papyrus,  the,  287. 

Hatasu,  Queen,  14,  15;  her  famous 
expedition  to  the  Land  of  Punt, 
17,  314;  obelisk  erected  by,  at 
Thebes,  279,  280;  temple  of,  at 
Thebes,  285,  286,  313,  314,  315. 

Hathor,  temple  of,  308. 

Heliopolis,  the  "city  of  the  sun," 
227-234 ;  its  one  curiosity,  227 ;  age 
of  its  famous  obelisk,  228;  chief 
seat  of  learning  during  the  Middle 
Empire,  230;  mother  city  of  Baal- 
bec.  231. 


Helouan-les-Bains,  oldest  health-re- 
sort in  the  world,  115,  237,  238,  250. 

Herodotus,  his  aphorism  concerning 
Egypt,  69 ;  his  account  of  the  build- 
ing of  the  pyramids,  205 ;  his  story 
of  Rhodope,  210. 

Hogarth,  David,  quoted,  6,  32,  33,  92. 

Homer,  his  description  of  Thebes, 
277,  278. 

Hotel  d'Angleterre,  the,  at  Cairo, 
127. 

Hotel  du  Nil,  the,  at  Cairo,  128. 

Hotel  Royal,  the,  at  Cairo,  127. 

Hyksos,  the  (see  Shepherd  Kings). 

Hypatia,  scene  of  her  triumphs  and 
tragedy  at  Alexandria,  92. 


Isis,  Temple  of,  29,  302,  319. 

Ismail  (Khedive),  his  hausmannis- 
ing  of  Cairo,  2,  113 ;  fall  of,  9 ;  his 
passion  for  European  institutions 
and  exalted  aims,  56 ;  wrings  heavy 
taxes  from  the  fellaheen,  67;  re- 
fuses to  supply  labourers  to  dig  the 
Suez  Canal,  112 ;  mania  for  build- 
ing palaces,  125;  walls  up  the 
"Needle's  Eye,"  184;  gives  the 
Virgin's  tree  as  a  present  to  his 
guest,  the  Empress  Eugenie,  233. 

Issus,  one  of  the  most  decisive  battles 
of  the  world  fought  at,  20. 


Johnston,  Captain,  his  engineering 
feat  in  saving  the  colossi  of  the 
Abu  Simbel  temple,  307. 

Joseph  (Jewish  patriarch),  14;  his 
well,  178,  179. 

Josephus,  quoted,  234. 


Ka-mes,  14. 

Karnak,  the  Great  Temple  of,  16, 
264;  tablet  of,  271,  278-280;  impor- 
tant archaeological  work  done  at, 
320. 

Kerouan  (the  "Holy  City"),  43. 


INDEX. 


331 


Khalig  Canal,  the,  fete  of,  189, 190. 
Khu-en-Aten    (alias     Ame.i-lietep), 

16,  268;  record  office  of,  268,  269; 

temple  of,  318. 
Kinglake,  quoted,  213. 


Lesseps,  M.  de,  108-113. 

Lloyd,  Clifford,  77. 

Luxor,  15,  114,  115,  250;  occupies 
part  of  the  site  of  ancient  Thebes, 
277;  temple  of,  280;  cost  of  living 
at,  290-292 ;  has  a  great  future  be- 
fore it  as  a  health-resort,  292,  293; 
compared  with  Assouan  and  Cairo, 
298. 

Lyons,  Colonel,  32,  311,  319. 


M 

Macgregor,  John,  quoted,  107. 

Mahaffy,  Professor,  quoted,  36,  40, 
100,273,274. 

Mamelukes,  the,  47-52;  meaning  of 
the  name,  47 ;  the  true  founder  of 
their  dynasty,  49;  length  of  their 
reign,  51,  151 ;  great  mosque-build- 
ers, 146;  tombs  of,  154;  rivals  of 
Mehemet  Ali,  170-172. 

Manetho,  historian  of  Egypt,  29,  230, 
231,  238. 

Marco  Polo,  50,  52. 

Mariette  Bey,  107,  218,  219,  222,  223, 
226  (Note),  316. 

Mark,  Saint,  his  bones  not  in  Alex- 
andria, but  in  Venice,  103,  104. 

Maspero,  Professor,  discoverer  of  the 
pyramid-tomb  of  Unas,  10;  163. 

Mastabas,  the,  meaning  of  the  word, 
224 ;  described,  225,  226. 

Matarieh,  village  of,  232-234. 

Mehemet  Ali,  rebuilds  and  Europe- 
anises  Cairo,  2 ;  invents  system  of 
perennial  irrigation  for  Egypt,  70 ; 
looks  to  France  for  aid  in  his  at- 
tempt to  civilise  Egypt,  85 ;  creator 
of    modern   Alexandria,    95;    his 


romantic  career,  and  resemblance 
to  Napoleon,  96,  169-175 ;  great  blot 
of  his  reign,  97, 172, 176, 177 ;  eques- 
trian statue  of,  at  Alexandria,  97 ; 
his  rivalship  with  the  Mamelukes, 
170-172;  conflict  with  the  Porte, 
172-175;  dares  not  withstand  "the 
lucky  queen,"  174;  greatest  ruler 
of  Egypt  since  the  Ptolemies,  175; 
mosque  of,  177 ;  failed  to  appreciate 
the  agricultural  importance  of  the 
Nile,  243 ;  began  the  Barrage,  244, 
246 ;  disgraceful  vandalism  in  time 
of,  274. 

Melik-es-Salih,  49. 

Memphis,  capital  of  Egypt  under 
Menes,  and  chief  centre  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  god  Ptah,  9 ;  first  histor- 
ical capital  of  Egypt,  11;  impor- 
tance of,  as  capital  of  the  Ancient 
Empire,  215;  compared  with 
Thebes,  216;  its  statues  of  Ram- 
eses  II.,  216,  217;  necropolis  at, 
217. 

Mena  House,  the  (hotel),  115,  116, 
126,  127,  250. 

Menes,  first  really  historical  king  of 
Egypt,  9. 

Menzaleh,  Lake,  109, 112. 

Mer-en-Ptah  (Seti  III.),  the  Pharaoh 
under  whose  reign  the  Exodus  of 
the  Israelites  took  place,  18,  162. 

Milnes,  Sir  Alfred,  73. 

Moeris,  an  artificial  lake,  12,  30,  71. 

Mokattam  Hills,  the,  169,  241. 

Moncrieff,  Sir  Colin  Scott,  72,  244, 
245,246. 

Montbard,  quoted,  236,  237. 

Morgan,  M.  de,  quoted,  320. 

Moses,  at  Heliopolis,  230;  his  well, 
241. 

Mosques,  unsanitary  condition  of, 
80;  of  Cairo  described,  139-148, 
152-154. 

Murray's  Handbook,  quoted,  143, 158, 
162,  189, 190,  209,  216,  239,  265,  266, 
275,  310. 

Mycerinos,  10,  210. 


332 


INDEX. 


N 
Napier,  Admiral,  his  interview  with 

Mehemet  Ali,  173,  174. 
Napoleon,  compared  with  Mehemet 
Ali,  96 ;  his  scheme  for  a  maritime 
canal  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez, 
108;  curious  coincidence  concern- 
ing, 170. 
Naukratis,  an  ancient  Greek  settle- 
ment in  Egypt,  discoveries  at,  316, 
317. 
Naville,  M.,  quoted,  313,  314,  315. 
Necho,  one  of  the  Pharaonic  kings 

of  Egypt,  20. 
New  Hotel,  the,  at  Cairo,  126. 
Nile,  the,  its  antiquities  of  surpass- 
ing interest,  3;  the  one  and  only 
highway  of  Egypt,  3;  Herodotus 's 
epigram  concerning,   69;    the  be- 
neficent providence  of  Egypt,  189; 
its  annual  increment  to  the  soil  of 
the  Delta,  227,  228 ;  worshipped  as 
the  creative   principle  of    Egypt, 
243 ;  as  a  health-resort,  249-260 ;  its 
dahabiyehs,  250,  251,  255-257;  ani- 
mal life  and  scenery  of,  252,  253; 
its  wonderful    sunset    afterglow, 
254,  255 ;  rare  sightseeing  on,  257 ; 
hints  to    sportsmen  on,  259,  260; 
from  Cairo  to  Thebes  on,  261-276; 
first  cataract  of,  303 ;  from  the  first 
to  the  second  cataract  of,  304-311 ; 
second  cataract  of,  310. 
Nilometer,  the,  12, 188, 189. 
Nitokris,  Queen,  10. 
Nubia,  geographical  features  of,  304, 
305. 


Ostrich  Farm,  the,  242. 

Othman,  first  leader  of  the  Ottoman 

Turks,  54. 
Oxyrhncus,  Logia  Jesou  found  here, 

321,  322. 


Octavius,  his  chief  casus  belli  with 
Antony,  39 ;  temple  of,  discovered, 
820. 

Omar,  Caliph,  42;  his  advice  to  his 
viceroy,  68 ;  destroys  the  Serapeum 
collection,  101, 102. 

Osiris,  his  reputed  burial-place  at 
Abydos,  9;  legendary  phoenix 
sacred  to,  231 ;  temple  of,  302. 


Paine,  J.  A.,  quoted,  289. 
Palmerston,  Lord,  opposes  the  Suez 

Canal  project.  111. 
Pelusium  (Sin  of  the  O.  T.),  107. 
Pentaur,  poet  laureate  of  the  Theban 

court,  18,  271,  272. 
Persians,  the,  subjugated  by  Alexan- 
der the  Great,  20;  their  sway  in 
Egypt  cruel  and  bloody,  22. 
Petrie,  Flinders,  quoted,  9,  165,  166, 
203,  204,  205,  263,  269,  317,  318,  320, 
322,  323. 
Petrie  papyrus,  the,  31. 
Petrified  Forest,  the,  240-242. 
Pharaohs,    Egypt   under   the,  6-21; 
their  twenty-six  dynasties,  8;  the 
name  Pharaoh    convertible    with 
that  of  Barneses,  16;  their  reign 
covered   four   thousand   years    of 
Egyptian  history,  21 ;  mummies  of, 
162-165. 
Pharos,  the,  at  Alexandria,  29. 
Philadelphus  (second  Ptolemy),  his 
coronation    ceremony     described, 
26-28 ;  orders  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lation of  the  O.  T.,  28;  builds  the 
famous  Pharos,  29;  establishes  the 
port  of  Berenice,  28,  29. 
PhilaB,  island  of,  301-303. 
Philometer  (Ptolemy  VII.),  sketch 

of  his  life  by  Polybius,  37,  38. 
Phoenix,  the,  231,  232. 
Photographers,      etc.,     in     Egypt, 

warned,  97,  98. 
Pithom,  famous  treasure-city  built 
by  the  Israelites  for  Rameses  the 
Great,  317. 
Plato,  a  student  at  Heliopolia,  230. 
Pliny,  quoted,  31. 
Plutarch,  quoted,  37. 
Pollard,  Mr.,  quoted,  156, 166. 


INDEX. 


333 


Poly  bins,  his  description  of  the  bat- 
tle of  Raphia,  34-36;  sketches  life 
of  Philometer,  37,  38. 

Pompey,  107. 

Pompey's  Pillar,  at  Alexandria,  100, 
101. 

Poole,  Stanley-Lane,  quoted,  2,  43- 
50,  141,  144,  151,  168,  186,  187,  197, 
198, 201,  228. 

Port  Said,  94,  105,  106,  107,  120. 

Posidippus,  epigram  of,  29. 

Prisse  papyrus,  the,  oldest  book  in 
the  world,  6,  166, 167. 

Psammetichus,  founds  the  twenty- 
sixth  Pharaonic  dynasty,  19,  20. 

Ptah,  creator  of  gods  and  men,  9. 

Ptolemaic  empire,  the,  fall  of,  42. 

Ptolemies,  the,  empire  of,  founded 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  8,  21,  22- 
41;  their  comparatively  peaceful 
rule  in  Egypt,  23,  24;  their  rule 
of  Egypt  during  three  hundred 
years  characterised,  32  et  seq.;  end 
of  their  dynasty,  42 ;  some  kind  of 
water  communication  in  time  of, 
between  the  Red  Sea  and  Mediter- 
ranean, 108;  where  the  architec- 
ture of  their  age  may  be  studied, 
272;  ruins  of  their  temples  and 
monuments  at  Philse,  301,  302. 

Ptolemy  IV.  (Philopater),  early 
events  of  his  reign  summarised, 
33-36;  a  patron  of  literature,  and 
builds  a  temple  in  honour  of 
Homer,  36. 

Ptolemy  VI.,  what  followed  his 
death,  38. 

Ptolemy  Soter,  founder  of  the  dy- 
nasty of  the  Ptolemies,  21,  24 ;  his 
museum  and  library  at  Alexan- 
dria, 24-26. 

Pulpit  Rock  of  Abusir,  309,  310. 

Pyramid-builders,  the  great,  10. 

Pyramid  of  Dahshur,  sets  of  ancient 
jewelry  found  here,  320,  321. 

Pyramid  of  Medum,  built  by  Sene- 
feru,  9. 

Pyramid  of  Unas,  222,  223. 


Pyramids,  the,  theories  concerning, 
202-204;  Dean  Stanley  on,  208. 

Pythagoras,  a  student  at  Heliopolis, 
203. 


Rae,  Fraser,  quoted,  164. 

Ram,  Colonel,  211. 

Rameses  I., least  important  sovereign 
of  the  Pharaohs,  17 ;  cut  the  first 
canal  between  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
Nile,  17. 

Rameses  III.,  founder  of  the  twelfth 
Pharaonic  dynasty,  18 ;  last  of  the 
warrior-kings  of  Egypt,  19 ;  temple 
of,  at  Thebes,  286,  287. 

Rameses  the  Great  (II.),  11 ;  the  dom- 
inant personality  in  the  history  of 
Egypt,  17;  his  greatest  achieve- 
ment in  arms,  18;  built  the  oldest 
road  in  the  world,  107;  colossal 
statues  of,  at  Memphis,  216,  217; 
temple  of,  at  Abydos,  270,  271; 
colossal  statue  of,  at  Thebes,  283; 
built  the  temple  of  Abu  Simbel, 
306,  308. 

Ramesseum,  the,  281,  283,  308. 

Ramleh,  115. 

Raphia,  battle  of,  described  by  Poly- 
bius,  34-36. 

Rogers  Pacha,  proposed  sanitary  re- 
forms of,  79-81. 

Rosetta,  94,  105. 

Rosetta  Stone,  161,  231. 

S 
Said  Pacha,  beneficial  results  of  his 

reign,  55;  grants  right  of  way  to 

the  Suez  Canal,  110,  111. 
St.  Peter's,  Rome,  height  of  dome, 

204. 
Sais,  12. 
Sakkarah,  tablet  and  cemetery  of, 

217-219. 
Saladin,     improves      and     fortifies 

Cairo,  42,  43;    his  character    and 

deeds,  46,  47,  150,  151,  176,  179. 
Salisbury,  Lord,  his  despatch  to  the 


334 


INDEX. 


English  envoy  to  the  Porte,  62, 
63. 

Sandwith,  Dr.  F.  M,,  quoted,  117. 

Saracenic  era,  the,  of  Egypt,  8,  42 ; 
art  fostered  by,  48,  49,  51. 

Scott,  Sir  John,  75,  76. 

Sequenen  Ra,  13, 164,  166. 

Serapeum,  the,  218,  219, 222. 

Seti  I.,  temple  of,  at  Abydos,  271, 
272;  his  tomb,  288. 

Seti  III.  {see  Mer-en-Ptah). 

Shashank  (Shishak  of  the  O.  T.), 
founder  of  the  twenty-second  Pha- 
raonic  dynasty,  19. 

Shelley,  quoted,  283,  284. 

Shepheards,  the  (hotel),  114,  123, 
124. 

Shepherd  Kings,  the,  11, 13, 161. 

Sinai,  inscriptions  on  the  cliffs  at, 
9. 

Sneferu,  temple  of,  317. 

Solar  Disk,  temple  of  the,  16. 

Solon,  a  student  at  Heliopolis,  230. 

Sphinx,  the,  211-213;  temple  of,  214. 

Stanley,  Dean,  quoted,  208,  212,  283. 

Step  Pyramid,  the,  222. 

Strabo,  quoted,  31,  271,  288,  296 
(Note). 

Suez  Canal,  story  of,  105-113;  em- 
phatically the  work  of  one  man, 
108 ;  not  preeminently  a  monument 
of  engineering  skill,  109 ;  its  genius 
loci,  109;  main  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  its  construction  political, 
110;  opposition  to,  of  the  British 
government.  111 ;  change  from 
manual  to  mechanical  labour  in 
digging,  112 ;  splendour  and  cost  of 
the  inauguration  ceremonies  of, 
112,  113. 

Syria,  nomad  tribes  of,  invade  Egypt, 
13. 


Tanis  (Zoan  of  the  O.  T.),  at  one 
time  capital  of  Egypt,  11 ;  ruins  of, 
107. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  quoted,  279. 


Tel-El- Amarna,  city  of  Lower  Egypt, 
11, 16 ;  rock-tombs  of,  268 ;  fame  of, 
as  a  field  for  research,  318. 

Tewfik,  placed  on  the  throne  of 
Egypt  by  the  Porte,  57;  more 
nearly  a  constitutional  ruler  than 
any  other  Egyptian  sovereign,  155; 
ceremonies  attending  his  funeral 
described,  155,  156;  Helouan  his 
favourite  residence,  and  where  he 
died,  237. 

Thebes,  capital  of  Egypt  under  the 
Middle  Empire,  11,  15;  admirable 
site  of,  277;  for  more  than  two 
thousand  years  the  capital  and 
ecclesiastical  seat  of  Egypt,  278, 
279 ;  ruins  and  antiquities  of,  278- 
289 ;  view  of,  from  one  of  the  sur- 
rounding mountain  peaks,  282. 

This,  earliest  historic  city  of  Egypt, 
supposed  birthplace  of  Menes,  9, 
270;  cradle  of  the  first  Egyptian 
kings,  11. 

Thotmes  I.,  II.,  III.,  14, 15. 

Tombs  of  the  Kings,  the,  287-289. 

Traill,  H.  D.,  quoted,  99,  137,  138, 
162,  177, 196,  254,  255. 

Trojan  War,  the,  its  date  in  connec- 
tion with  Egyptian  history,  19. 

Tunis,  seat  of  the  Fatimite  dynasty, 
46. 

Turin  papyrus,  the,  167,  217,  227. 

Turkey,  her  protectorship  of  Egypt 
considered,  88. 

Turks,  Ottoman,  the,  42;  beginning 
of  their  empire,  53;  distinguished 
from  the  Saracens  and  Arabs,  54; 
date  of  their  invasion  of  Egypt, 
150. 

Turra,  quarries  of,  238-240. 

U 
Unas,  his  pyramid-tomb,  10. 
Usertsen  I.  and  II.,  reigns  of,  12. 

V 
Vandalism,  European    and  Ameri- 
can, of  Egyptian  and  other  antiqui- 
ties. 274,  281,  316. 


INDEX. 


335 


Verdi,  composes  the  opera  "Aida" 
for  the  Khedive  Ismail  at  the  inau- 
guration ceremonies  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  113. 

Vincent,  Sir  Edgar,  financial  adviser 
to  the  Khedive,  68. 

Virgin's  Tree,  the,  legend  of,  232, 
233. 

Virgin's  Well,  the,  legend  of,  233, 
234. 

Vocal  Memnon,  the,  284,  285. 

W 

Wady  Haifa,  fortified  post  of,  308; 

pulpit  rock  at,  309,  310. 
Wakfs     Administration,     the,    has 


charge  of  all  Egyptian  mosques, 

141, 142. 
Wallis-Budge,  E.  A.,  quoted,  14,  16, 

{Note) ;  160,  161,  167,  262,  271. 
Warburton,  Eliot,  quoted,  170,  171, 

307. 
Washington  Monument,  the,  height 

of,  204. 
Wolseley,  Lord,  subdues  the  rebel- 
lion of  Arabi  in  Egypt,  67. 
Wood,  Sir  Evelyn,  reorganises  the 

Egyptian  army,  65. 


Zoan  {see  Tanis). 


APPENDIX 

CONSISTING   OF   LETTERS   FROM 

ASSOUAN 

DESCRIBING   THE   NEW  BARRAGE 

By-  DANA   ESTES,  M.  A. 

AN  AMERICAN  TOURIST 

OF 

1901 


APPENDIX. 


THE   GREAT  NILE  VALLEY  IMPROVEMENT. 

LETTERS   FROM    ASSOUAN   BY   AN   AMERICAN   TOURIST. 

BEYOND  question  this  place  is  destined  to  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  evolution  of  the  new  Egypt,  as  indeed 
it  did  in  the  Egypt  of  ancient  times.  Situated  at  the  foot  of 
the  first  cataract,  and  thus  being  at  the  head  of  steamboat 
navigation,  and  of  pretty  much  all  navigation  for  heavy 
merchandise,  and  at  one  of  the  nearest  points  to  the  Red 
Sea  on  the  great  caravan  routes,  across  the  Libyan  and 
Arabian  deserts ;  it  is  a  focal  point  between  Egypt  proper 
and  Nubia,  or  ancient  Ethiopia ;  or,  as  it  is  now  called, 
"  The  Soudan."  But  a  short  time  since  it  was  an  outpost 
of  civilisation,  a  stronghold  held  almost  in  fear  and  trem- 
bling against  the  Mahdists,  who  were  drunk  with  the 
success  against,  and  the  bloodshed  of,  the  great  Egyptian 
armies  under  Hicks  Pacha  and  others,  which  they  had 
annihilated.  Every  hilltop  commanding  the  post  was  forti- 
fied, and  the  remnants  of  these  are  now  fast  falling  to 
pieces,  being  abandoned  and  neglected  as  of  no  further  use. 
The  desert  route  toward  Khartoum  was  picketed  for  many 
miles  to  prevent  a  surprise. 

Since  the  destruction  of  the  hosts  of  the  Kalifa,  all  is 
peace  and  plenty  in  Assouan.  New  buildings  are  spring- 
ing up;  fine  schools  and  churches  are  being  established. 
The  garrison  is  reduced  to  a  single  regiment :  a  troop  of 


340  APPENDIX. 

cavalry,  and  one  field  battery,  —  all  composed  of  fine  stal- 
wart Nubians,  who  are  pronounced  by  good  judges,  who 
have  seen  them  under  fire,  to  be  as  fine  soldiers  as  any  in 
the  world.  A  happier  looking  set  of  soldiers  I  have  never 
seen,  and  my  observations  in  this  direction  have  been 
somewhat  extended.  They  are  fortunate  in  one  respect. 
They  have  no  fatigue  duties,  or  dirty  work  of  any  kind. 
All  this  is  done  for  them  by  convicts  from  all  parts  of 
Egypt.  These  are  in  squads  under  sergeants  and  corporals, 
who  overlook  them  with  loaded  rifles,  and  the  worst  class 
—  murderers,  and  those  who  may  not  be  trusted  at  all  — 
are  in  chain  gangs  ;  but  the  most  of  them  are  simply  desig- 
nated by  a  yellow  uniform  and  work  quite  freely  without 
fetters,  and  appear  cheerful  and  contented.  The  soldiers' 
quarters  are  wonderfully  neat  and  clean,  and  on  parade 
they  present  a  fine  appearance  ;  a  good  proportion  of  them 
being  nearly  six  feet  in  height,  and  as  straight  as  arrows. 
Their  wives  dwell  near  them  in  separate  quarters,  and 
wear  a  white  costume  of  uniform  character.  I  had  the 
good  fortune  to  see  about  a  thousand  of  them  coming  out 
of  their  quarters,  and  moving  slowly  like  an  animated 
snow-storm  to  the  parade-ground  to  witness  some  native 
races.  The  only  bit  of  colour  in  the  whole  mass  was  the 
charcoal  faces  —  all  the  rest  clean  white ;  and  at  a  distance 
the  scene  was  a  wonderfully  impressive  one. 

These  races  are  called  in  Egypt  "a  gymkana,"  and 
consist  of  horse,  donkey,  camel,  and  foot  races  of  every 
imaginable  variety.  They  are  organised  and  patronised  by 
the  hotel  guests,  and  afford  great  amusement  to  the  natives 
as  well.  The  most  interesting  event  was  a  race  between 
eight  camels  ridden  by  almost  nude  Bisharin  Arab  boys. 
The  skill  of  these  boys  and  the  speed  attained  by  these 
awkward  beasts  was  simply  marvellous.  A  splendid  Ara- 
bian race-horse,  ridden  by  a  skilled  rider,  was  distanced 
by  the  winning  camel.     These  Bisharin  Bedouins  are  from 


THE  GKEAT  NILE  VALLEY  IMPROVEMENT.   341 

the  desert  between  Assouan  and  the  Red  Sea,  and  the 
young  men  and  women  are  the  finest  physical  specimens 
of  dark-skinned  folk  that  I  have  ever  seen.  They  also 
have  the  finest  teeth  I  have  ever  seen  in  any  human 
beings. 

The  future  of  Assouan  and  indeed  of  all  Egypt  is  bound 
up  in  the  Great  Barrage,  now  about  half  built.  I  cannot 
in  this  letter  speak  appropriately  of  this  immense  work, 
but  only  of  one  feature  especially  important  to  Assouan. 
It  is  intended  to  utilise  the  vast  water-power  of  the  cata- 
ract, now  running  entirely  to  waste,  in  a  great  electrical 
plant  to  supply  light,  heat,  and  power  to  this  section,  and 
it  is  expected  to  revolutionise  the  country,  and  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  will.  Already  building  sites 
and  islands  in  the  Nile  are  being  sought  for.  Lord  Kitch- 
ener has  acquired  a  large  island  opposite  Assouan,  between 
the  famous  Elephantine  Island  and  the  Libyan  Desert.  Ju- 
venal was  banished  to  Assouan  as  the  farthest  outpost  in 
the  Roman  Empire  for  punishment  for  his  satires  on  the 
imperial  court.  Such  a  punishment  now  would  mean 
living  in  one  of  three  first-class  hotels,  at  unfortunately  ex- 
cessively high  prices,  but  in  the  finest  climate  in  the  world. 
A  person  banished  might,  however,  not  have  the  luck  to 
get  in  at  all,  even  at  Waldorf-Astoria  prices,  as  the  rush 
this  season  has  been  so  great  that  hundreds  have  been 
turned  back  to  Luxor  and  Cairo,  and  some  have  been  com- 
pelled to  sleep  in  bath-rooms  and  offices.  The  season  is, 
however,  short,  beginning  December  1st,  and  at  its  height  in 
January  and  February,  and  waning  and  finally  ending  in 
March.  The  chief  occupations  of  the  guests  are  camel  and 
donkey  rides,  visits  to  the  antiquities  of  Assouan  and  beau- 
tiful Philae,  the  ancient  quarries,  the  Barrage,  and  the 
Soudanese  bazaar ;  but  the  air  is  so  fine  that  one  only 
needs  to  be  and  not  to  do. 

At  the  last  full  moon  I  invited  a  party  of  twenty,  char- 


342  APPENDIX. 

tered  a  special  train,  and  visited  the  temples  of  PhilaB  under 
the  white  light  of  a  tropical  night.  It  was  a  scene  never 
to  be  forgotten,  tinged  with  the  regret  that  it  can  probably 
never  be  repeated,  for  beautiful  Philae  is  doubtless  doomed 
to  destruction  in  the  interest  of  more  corn,  wine,  and  oil 
for  the  long  oppressed  fellaheen,  who  at  last,  thanks  to  our 
English  cousins,  is  having  a  fair  chance  in  the  world. 
Your  correspondent  is  one  of  the  fortunate  who  in  coming 
early  secured  an  Arabian  horse  for  the  season.  Camel 
and  donkey  riding  is  very  interesting  as  a  novelty,  but  give 
me  a  desert  horse  if  I  may  have  my  choice.  Mine  is  a 
small  beast,  with  the  smallest  ears  I  have  ever  seen  on  a 
horse,  and  a  great  aversion  to  donkeys.  While  in  town  he 
is  as  quiet  a  hack  as  one  would  find  anywhere.  But  get 
him  on  his  native  heath,  the  open  desert,  and  he  becomes 
another  kind  of  proposition.  His  nostrils  dilate,  up  go  his 
small  ears  and  long  tail,  and  not  infrequently  both  his 
heels,  and  for  a  brief  space  it  becomes  a  question  as 
to  which  shall  maintain  the  mastery.  Nothing  but  a 
firm  seat  and  will,  and  a  vigorous  application  of  the  koor- 
bash,  a  cruel  rawhide  whip  made  from  the  skin  of  the 
hippopotamus,  will  bring  a  rider  safely  out  of  such  an 
encounter. 

I  intended  to  speak  of  Assouan  from  an  archaeological 
and  historical  point  of  view,  but  fear  my  letter  is  already 
too  long. 

Since  the  conquest  of  the  Soudan  and  its  occupation  in 
the  name  of  the  Khedive,  and  the  Queen  of  England,  to  the 
distinct  inferential  elimination  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
from  the  problem,  it  appears  to  be  assumed  on  all  hands 
that  it  is  no  longer  a  question  as  to  whether  the  Briton 
will  leave  Egypt,  but  simply,  "  What  will  he  do  with  it  ? " 
The  Sultan  of  Turkey,  it  is  true,  censors  Lord  Cromer's 
speeches,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  hides  his  head  in  the  sand 
by  keeping  the  facts  from  becoming  known  to  his  subjects ; 


THE  GREAT  NILE  VALLEY  IMPROYEMENT.  343 

but  the  young  Khedive,  who,  a  few  years  ago,  kicked  over 
the  traces  by  dismissing  his  enlightened  Prime  Minister, 
Nubar  Pacha,  and  appointing  his  reactionary  favourite, 
Riaz  Pacha,  and  who  also  insulted  General  Kitchener  and 
his  English  officers  to  such  an  extent  that  they  resigned, 
and  who  was  compelled  by  Lord  Cromer  to  eat  humble  pie 
in  each  case,  has  now  evidently  seen  a  new  light,  and  is 
most  friendly,  not  only  with  the  English  powers  that  be, 
but  with  his  own  subjects  who  have  all  along  favoured 
the  English  occupation. 

The  facts  that  the  English  have  given  freedom  and  prac- 
tically equal  rights  to  a  people  accustomed  to  oppression 
and  the  lash  from  a  habit  of  at  least  ten  thousand  years ; 
that  they  have  reduced  the  immense  debt,  both  principal 
and  interest,  incurred  by  ''Ismail  the  Plunger,"  also 
called  "  The  Regenerator "  by  his  French  parasites,  by 
about  twenty-five  per  cent.,  and  have  at  one  fell  stroke 
abolished  forced  labour,  the  wicked  system  of  the  corvee, 
and  the  tax  on  the  commerce  of  the  Nile  at  the  Cairo  Bar- 
rage, would  alone  seem  to  settle  all  doubts  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  permanent  occupation 
and  administration  of  the  country.  The  commercial  ele- 
ments of  all  nationalities  are  unquestionably  a  unit  in  its 
favour,  even  including  the  sore-headed  French,  who  are 
compelled  to  see  the  country  which  was  exploited  for  a 
generation  by  their  speculators  becoming  Anglicised  at  an 
extraordinary  rate. 

A  simple  fact  illustrating  this  has  just  come  under  my 
observation.  Five  years  ago  the  scholars  in  the  Assouan 
government  school  elected  French  as  their  language,  to 
the  extent  of  eighty  per  cent.,  and  English  twenty  per 
cent.  This  year  they  elected  English  to  the  extent  of 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  whole  school,  and  practically  the 
same  rule  holds  good  in  the  mission  schools  for  girls,  sup- 
ported  by  English   contributors,  who  are  doing  a  noble 


344  APPENDIX. 

work  in  giving  the  downtrodden  sex  a  distinctly  secular 
and  ethical  education,  quite  removed  from  any  attempts  to 
proselyte  or  convert  to  any  change  in  religious  belief. 

All  this,  however,  is  somewhat  apart  from  my  visit  to 
the  Assouan  Barrage.  I  have  been  led  into  political  and 
economical  questions,  by  the  fact  that  the  question  of  all 
questions  is  one  of  water.  Under  the  blighting  rule  of 
"  the  unspeakable  Turk '"  a  large  proportion  of  the  most 
fruitful  land  on  earth,  the  Delta,  became  a  howling  wilder- 
ness ;  in  part  a  malarial  marsh,  and  in  part,  including  the 
famous  world  granary,  the  Land  of  Zoan,  once  occupied  by 
the  Israelites,  simply  a  sandy  desert.  Ismail  the  "  Re- 
generator "  began  at  a  frightful  cost,  owing  to  the  influ- 
ences by  which  he  was  ruled,  to  build  canals,  and  the  Cairo 
Barrage,  an  immense  dam  or  weir  to  impound  the  waters 
of  the  Nile,  and  deliver  them  as  needed  to  the  thirsty  lands 
of  the  Delta.  The  conception  was  grand;  the  execution 
by  the  flighty  French  defective;  and  the  Barrage  was 
useless  until  English  engineers  rebuilt  the  foundations. 

Its  immediate  success  raised  the  question  of  other  dams, 
and  there  are  two  in  course  of  construction,  both  by  an 
English  firm  of  contractors,  John  Aird  &  Son,  who  not 
only  do  the  work,  but  receive  no  pay  until  after  the  com- 
pletion and  successful  operation  of  the  Barrages.  Mr. 
Aird,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  during  his  recent 
stay  at  the  Cataract  Hotel,  was  recently  knighted  by  Queen 
Victoria  for  his  great  enterprise  here. 


THE  ASSOUAN  BARRAGE,  ONE  OP  THE  DAMS  OP  THE 
RIVER  NILE. 

The  Assouan  Barrage  is  in  the  first  cataract,  about  half- 
way between  the  town  and  the  island  of  Philae,  the  beauti- 
ful temples  of  which  it  is  feared  are  destined  to  destruction 
by  the  improvement,  notwithstanding   the   fact  that  the 


THE  GKEAT  NILE  VALLEY  IMPROVEMENT.  345 

Barrage  was  lowered  fourteen  feet  from  the  original  plan 
in  the  hope  of  preserving  them,  and  so  on  the  boundary 
line  between  upper  Egypt  and  Nubia  or  ancient  Ethiopia,. 
now  generally  called  the  Soudan.  A  visit  to  "  the  works  " 
and  the  Barrage  is  one  of  the  occupations  of  the  great 
crowd  of  sightseers  and  semi-invalids  who  dwell  in  this 
favoured  spot,  which  has  beyond  doubt  the  finest  climate 
in  the  world.  By  the  courtesy  of  the  eminent  government 
engineers,  Messrs.  Maurice  Fitzmaurice  and  Louis  Neville, 
who  were  also  associated  in  building  the  great  Forth  bridge, 
I  was  taken  in  hand  by  the  latter  and  shown  this  stupendous 
work.  It  was  begun  in  February,  1898,  and  was  con- 
tracted to  be  completed  in  about  six  years  at  a  cost  of  ten 
million  dollars,  payable,  including  interest,  in  thirty  half- 
yearly  payments  of  about  four  hundred  thousand  dollars 
each.  Its  foundations  rest  on  the  solid  granite  ledges,  for 
which  this  spot  is  famous,  and  the  materials  of  construction 
are  from  the  quarries  which  have  for  six  thousand  years 
supplied  Egypt  with  its  most  durable  stone  for  temples, 
tombs,  statues,  and  pyramids.  Its  dimensions,  roughly 
stated,  are  as  follows :  Total  length,  a  little  more  than  one 
and  one-half  miles;  extreme  height  and  depth,  including 
foundations,  about  120  feet;  extreme  width  at  base,  about 
eighty  feet;  width  at  top,  which  forms  a  roadway  across 
the  Nile,  protected  by  heavy  parapet  walls,  twenty-five 
feet.  Its  contents  are  about  1,250,000  tons  of  masonry, 
and  the  sluices,  180  in  number,  with  their  frames,  will 
take  about  ten  thousand  tons  of  steel  and  iron.  All  of  the 
masonry  in  sight  is  of  rough  hammered  granite,  quarried 
in  massive  blocks.  The  interior  is  of  granite  splinters  of 
good  size,  solidly  cemented  together.  The  sluices  through 
which  the  whole  of  the  volume  of  the  Nile,  even  during 
the  inundation,  must  run,  are  at  various  heights,  that  the 
water  may  be  loosed  or  held  at  pleasure.  During  the  in- 
undation, when  the  water  is   charged  with  its  fertilising 


346  APPENDIX. 

mud,  all  the  water  which  can  be  possibly  passed  through 
the  lowest  sluices  must  go  that  way,  that  the  life-blood  of 
Egypt  may  not  be  stopped  in  its  way,  and  the  fellaheen 
robbed  of  his  manure,  and  the  lake  at  the  back  of  the  Bar- 
rage become  filled  with  the  silt.  No  water  will  ever  pass 
over  the  dam. 

It  is,  of  course,  a  fine  engineering  problem  to  provide 
sufficient  sluiceway  for  all  the  water  which  heaven  may 
send  down  from  the  lakes  of  equatorial  Africa  and  the 
mountains  of  Abyssinia.  Were  upper  Egypt  and  the  Sou- 
dan subject  to  rainy  seasons,  it  would  doubtless  be  an 
impossibility,  but  rains  here  are  so  infrequent  as  to  be 
practically  left  out  of  the  account,  not  only  in  engineering 
works,  but  in  the  dwelling-places  of  the  people.  When 
one  comes,  it  leaves  them  stunned  and  almost  helpless. 
For  instance,  a  washout  on  the  railway  last  month  left 
this  section  cut  off  from  the  lower  world  for  ten  days, 
except  for  the  infrequent  steamers  bringing  and  taking 
tourists.  We  were  in  our  hotel,  calmly  informed  that  the 
world  had  not  supplied  us  with  butter  or  eggs,  and  we 
frequently  ran  out  of  ice.  When  the  great  electric  plant 
in  connection  with  the  Barrage  is  completed  the  latter  can 
be  manufactured  at  a  minimum  cost,  and  it  is  expected  to 
revolutionise  this  section.  The  increase  in  the  price  of 
land  has  many  times  paid  the  cost  of  the  Cairo  Barrage, 
and  it  is  estimated  that  the  Assouan  and  Assiout  Barrages 
will  add  to  the  annual  income  of  the  country  almost  im- 
mediately upwards  of  thirty  million  dollars,  and  ultimately 
many  times  this  vast  amount.  Should  the  result  prove 
anything  like  the  figures  estimated,  it  will  be  easy  to  ex- 
tend the  system  to  the  other  cataracts,  and  doubtless  Egypt 
will  soon  become  one  of  the  richest,  as  it  is  now  one  of  the 
most  fertile,  spots  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  water  impounded  by  the  Assouan 
Barrage,  after  all  lower  Egypt  is  fertilised  by  the  inunda- 


THE  GREAT  NILE  VALLEY  IMPROVEMENT.   347 

tion,  will  amount  to  many  billion  gallons,  and  will  raise 
the  level  of  the  river  for  about  120  miles. 

The  contractors  have  been  favoured  by  two  seasons  of 
low  Nile  since  they  began  their  work,  and  in  consequence 
they  are  about  one  year  ahead  of  time  on  their  estimates. 
This  will  prove  an  important  factor  in  their  profits  and  in 
the  ultimate  advantage  to  the  country  from  its  early  com- 
pletion. It  is  now  expected  that  the  foundations  will  be 
completed  before  the  next  flood,  which  comes  in  August. 
All  of  the  river  is  now  running  through  the  sluices,  and 
coffer-dams  are  built  for  the  remainder  of  the  foundations, 
and  are  nearly  all  pumped  out. 

An  important,  and,  indeed,  absolutely  necessary  adjunct 
to  the  Barrage,  is  the  canal,  which  is  built  outside  of  the 
bed  of  the  river  in  the  solid  ledge  on  the  west  or  Sahara 
side  of  the  river.  The  desert  comes  down  to  the  river  on 
both  sides  at  this  point.  This  canal  is  one  and  a  half 
miles  long,  just  about  the  sam£  length  as  the  dam,  and  is 
of  sufficient  width  and  depth  to  accommodate  the  steamers 
and  dahabiyehs  plying  on  the  Nile.  It  is  fitted  with  a 
series  of  four  locks  about  four  hundred  feet  long  and 
thirty-five  feet  wide,  and  it  will  spoil  the  occupation  of  the 
hundreds  of  wild-eyed  Nubians  who  used  to  levy  blackmail 
on  the  tourists  who  wished  to  pass  up  or  down  the  cata- 
ract in  boats  or  dahabiyehs.  It  will  save  great  delays,  and 
the  transshipment  of  vast  quantities  of  merchandise,  and 
tend  to  equalise  prices  and  stimulate  enterprise  throughout 
the  whole  land,  and  thus  prove  a  blessing  to  the  nation. 

A  trifling  fraction  of  the  sums  spent  by  our  Cousin  John 
in  killing  a  handful  of  patriotic,  if  mistaken,  Boers,  would 
make  the  Nile  valley  the  garden  spot  of  the  world.  And 
John  can  afford  it,  too,  for  he  has  made  a  cool,  clean  profit 
of  about  one  hundred  million  dollars  on  his  Suez  Canal 
shares,  which  the  bankrupt  Egypt  had  to  part  with  at  a 
forced  sale.     It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  this  is  the 


348  APPENDIX. 

chief  thing  he  has  to  show  on  a  profit  and  loss  account. 
He  lets  us  all  trade  and  travel  as  freely  here  as  he  does  him- 
self, and,  with  an  immense  amount  of  care  and  responsi- 
bility and  no  direct  gain,  is  giving  the  world  a  splendid 
object-lesson  of  the  immediate  benefits  derived  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  freedom  and  civilisation.  When  one  contrasts  the 
conditions  in  Egypt  with  those  in  the  Barbary  States  on  the 
west,  even  with  those  administered  by  republican  France, 
and  with  the  Ottoman  Empire  on  the  east,  he  cannot  but 
admit  the  benign  influence  of  our  Cousin  John,  and  I  trust 
I  may  not  lay  myself  open  to  the  charge  of  becoming  an 
Anglomaniac,  if  I  express  the  view  that  a  more  enlightened 
or  even  altruistic  experiment  in  international  interference 
was  never  undertaken  in  the  history  of  civilisation. 

Dana  Estes. 
Assouan,  February/  25, 1901. 


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